


Playing Around

by dovingbird



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Bareback Anal, Brief Partner Swapping, Choking, Dom/sub Undertones, Exhibitionism, F/M, Fantasizing, Felching, Fighting, Fluff, Gay Feelings, Intercrural Sex, M/M, Masochism, No-Lube Anal Fingering, Oral Sex, Overhearing Sex, Reconciliation, Rimming, Rough Sex, Subspace, Voyeurism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-31
Updated: 2017-01-24
Packaged: 2018-08-28 02:46:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 45,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8428441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dovingbird/pseuds/dovingbird
Summary: So Rhett and Link have girlfriends in college, as you do. So they get together to watch a movie with them, as you do. And then they end up in a voyeuristic competition that ends up getting a little gayer than intended, as you fucking do.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Content warnings for this chapter includes exhibitionism and a very tiny amount of partner swapping.

So here's the thing. When Link gets a little beer in him, his head kind of shuts off a little. Or hell, maybe that's not it, maybe just, maybe it goes a little fuzzy around the edges, like a fog setting in over the cornfields in the morning when he and Rhett would drive to high school together, when Rhett was too tired to talk and all Link got to do was look out the window and watch this mist stir around the stalks like something bigger was coming. So fine, his brain doesn't shut off. Not completely. It just closes up a couple of valves.  
  
Are those valves important? He really doesn't know. Really doesn't care either. Just knows that it's a hell of a lot easier to tuck his arm around his girlfriend, Kelly Anne, and nuzzle at her soft, curly hair while she giggles and elbows him.  
  
"Baby," Kelly Anne laughs, "baby, stop."  
  
"Why?" Link grins against her hair and uses his other hand to push it away from her neck. "Far as I remember, we didn't even wanna watch the damn movie."  
  
"Hey," Rhett says from the other end of the couch. "It's a good movie. Real good. Tell 'em, sweetheart."  
  
Charlotte kisses her teeth where she's snuggled into Rhett's side. "Speak for yourself." She nods toward Link and Kelly Anne. "You don't think they've got the right idea?"  
  
"What?" Rhett looks over and locks eyes with Link for a moment as Link brushes his nose over Kelly Anne's warm skin, feels her pulse skip a little. "Kissing?"  
  
Kelly Anne squeals as Link nips at her neck and she does that thing where she curls her legs around his but pretends she's pushing him away. "C'mon, no!"  
  
"Why not?" Link asks. He kisses the slope of her jaw, then gets a little distracted by the curve of her cheek, the strawberry lip gloss she's wearing.  
  
The movie plays on in the background for a moment, a pleasant soundtrack to Link's questing mouth, and even Rhett's quiet laugh at one of Mel Brook's jokes doesn't distract him. He feels looser with the beer in him, feels like his lips are slicker and freer, feels like he wants to pull Kelly Anne close and squeeze her until neither of them can breathe.  
  
Kelly Anne squeaks when he catches her bottom lip between his teeth and she smacks him on the arm. "Link!" She laughs, cheeks flushed under her freckles, cupping his cheek. "Baby." She drops her voice and whispers so he can catch the smell of the bubble gum on her tongue. "In front of Rhett and Charlotte?"  
  
"You shy?" Charlotte asks, her low twang on full display as she chuckles. "You?"  
  
"What're you trying to say?" Kelly Anne asks, whipping her head around, almost giving Link a mouthful of curls.  
  
Charlotte flicks her eyes over Kelly Anne, probably taking in the leather top that's looking real Olivia Newton-John and the tight pants - Link gets a little distracted himself - before she smiles and shrugs. "Just didn't think a girl as confident as you'd get shy about kissing your man in front of somebody else."  
  
Kelly Anne frowns and tucks the hair behind her ear while Link and Rhett look between them. Better than any tennis match. "Well, I just think some things gotta stay private, don't you?"  
  
Charlotte flashes every pretty white tooth she's got. "Private's overrated, sweetie." She lays her hand on Rhett's thigh, high enough that Link can practically feel it, and tilts her head to the side. "Anyway, that's what makes it fun to let loose."  
  
Kelly Anne huffs and looks back at the movie, resting her head on Link's chest, and Link sighs too. Well. That ship sailed. He plays with the curls on her back, though, eventually buries beneath them to find her warm, soft skin, and she hums against his chest. This is nice too, he decides, just cuddling, just watching a movie, just thinking about how he could be kissing his girl right now, no big deal.  
  
He hears a soft warm sound beside him and looks over, and what does he see but Charlotte with her tongue halfway down Rhett's throat? Oh. Well. Link swallows a little too hard, watching Rhett fit his hand into Charlotte's tiny waist, spanning from rib to hip, watching how Charlotte hums and tips her head to deepen the kiss even further. Man, that looks real nice, actually.  
  
He glances down when he hears a gasp, sees Kelly Anne gaping at them with her brow wrinkled all cutely like she's never seen such a thing. She looks up at Link, affronted, and his foggy brain can't really remember what facial expression he's supposed to give her right now, so he just, just kind of grins, really, real big and dopey, and Kelly Anne frowns and looks back down the couch.  
  
"What?" Link whispers.  
  
Kelly Anne works her pretty lips together before she looks up at him like a girl on a mission, and he's not real sure when she got into his lap, but yeah, she's there all right, and she's kissing him too, and now there's the sweet taste of strawberry all over his tongue.  
  
Link always knew he liked Charlotte, hot damn. He's gotta get her a nice card or something.  
  
Link closes his eyes, of course, as you do, so he can focus real close on the kiss. Kelly Anne's always got a soft mouth, hot and supple and everything he's ever wanted in a pair of lips. Even prettier around his cock, actually. He twitches in his pants and feels her hum and laugh against his mouth before she wiggles in his lap, and he grabs her as tight as he can around the hips, pulls her down so he can grind up against her and make her do that cute little squeal again. Fuck, she's already hot through her pants. She's probably wet too.  
  
It's a weird thing in his brain, probably one of those valves being shut off, but Link is just so damn happy about this smoking hot girl in his lap that he opens his eyes, looks over at Rhett, tries to communicate _just how fucking cool this is,_ and what happens is that he ends up locking eyes with him.  
  
Which wouldn't normally be weird, except Rhett's got a tongue down his throat that's also from a smoking hot girl in his lap, and Charlotte just happens to have her shirt falling down her shoulder and she's apparently not wearing a bra, and that's probably why Link's cock twitches again, not, not the eye contact thing.  
  
Rhett's eyes go a little low and hooded, probably because Charlotte's sliding her hand down his chest and doesn't look like she's gonna stop any time soon. Is that what's really happening? Like, this is just a game, right, just two couples making out and playing chicken?  
  
Rhett's eyes finally shut again when Charlotte pulls back to attach herself to his neck like a vampire queen, and Link stares for a second longer before he remembers that no, right, he's kissing his girlfriend, so it's time to, uh, to focus on that thing. Focus on Kelly Anne squeezing her thighs around his hips. Focus on Kelly Anne sucking gently at his tongue.  
  
Or focus on Charlotte practically purring across the room, that too.  
  
Link and Kelly Anne part to look over at them, and the angle's a little weird, but Link's pretty sure that Rhett's got a hand up Charlotte's shirt right now. He squints like it'll maybe help him see better, and...okay, yeah, there's definitely a little finger movement around her nipple, hot damn. Link looks at Kelly Anne, can practically feel the puppy dog eyes, and she looks down at him and purses her lips before she smiles at him in that nasty way he loves so much and moves her hips against his, a long smooth tease that has Link hissing and tipping his head back on the couch.  
  
"Think he likes that, Kelly Anne," Charlotte drawls. Link's never heard her voice that husky before, but damn, he thinks he likes it.  
  
"Shut up," Kelly Anne shoots back, light as tinkly bells. "Take care of your own man."  
  
"Oh, my man's satisfied," Charlotte laughs. "See for yourself."  
  
Kelly Anne turns her head while Link thumbs at her waistband and rocks his hips up against her, eyes glued to her cleavage. Kelly Anne shivers and he glances up, sees how she's biting her bottom lip. What? He looks over and sees Rhett mouthing at Charlotte's neck, and Charlotte's shirt is hanging real low now, so low that Link can see the tops of Rhett's fingers peeking over the neckline.  
  
Damn. Fuck, she's hot. They're _all_ hot.  
  
"C'mon," Rhett murmurs, low and thick, and Charlotte moans as he bites at her neck.  
  
Kelly Anne grabs Link's face and turns it to look at her. "We ain't gonna let them win," she whispers, and Link thinks he's maybe died and gone to heaven. Sweet Jesus, take him now.  
  
Link pulls her down for another kiss, slick and sloppy, and slides his hand up her shirt and under her bra. The tightness of the underwire's worth the feel of her soft tit in his hand, and he squeezes, feeling her hard nipple against his palm. There's a rush of fire straight across his scalp and down his neck as she whimpers against his mouth, and Link's foggy-headed but that's not enough to keep him from reaching to get her bra unfastened in three seconds flat.  
  
Kelly Anne pulls her shirt up and Link responds immediately, Pavlov be damned, gets his mouth around her nipple and sucks as he pulls her close with an arm around her waist. Goddamn, she moans so pretty for him, just sinks her fingers into his hair to hold him where she wants him, and he's damn happy to take direction. See, he learned a lesson weeks ago with her, and that's that if he does what she wants, he's gonna be rewarded every cotton picking time.  
  
He's pretty sure the credits are rolling on the movie. Can't tell perfectly 'cuz all he can hear is their sounds, moans and kisses overlapping until there's static all over his skin.  
  
"Oh, fuck-" Charlotte sucks in a sharp breath and Link turns his head, rolls Kelly Anne's pebbly nipple between his fingers as he investigates. Promptly forgets what he's doing too, since Rhett's got a hand up Charlotte's skirt and she's got a hand down his pants. He can see her hand moving over the bulge in his jeans, can see her ease down further to cup his balls, can see the swell of Rhett's cock outlined so perfectly when she moves her wrist.  
  
He's still staring when Kelly Anne grabs his other hand and moves it to the button of her pants. Yeah, okay, sure, right on that, ma'am. He gets her pants open and feels his mouth go dry when she squirms out of them and kicks them to the floor, her lacy pink panties on display. She presses his hand between her legs, where she's practically dripping on his fingers.  
  
"You like this?" Link asks without meaning to as he rubs at her lips, feels how flushed they are. "This get you hot? Somebody else bein' here?"  
  
"Shut up," she says again, quiet and embarrassed, and Link coos as he kisses her again.  
  
"Me too," he whispers against her mouth, and she bites her bottom lip before she reaches for his jeans.  
  
He's not really sure how they got here, clothes flying this way and that. It all sort of goes a little hazy as Kelly Anne gets his shirt off and thumbs over his nipples as she nibbles his ear, but then there's a _growl,_ visceral and sharp, and Link bucks up against Kelly Anne before he looks over and sees a very naked Rhett and Rhett's very naked girlfriend rubbing against each other.  
  
Holy shit, Rhett's cock. Holy shit. Is he that turned on by this? Not even a little shy? Like, it's thick and hard and red, so fucking red, and why is Link staring at Rhett's cock, why is Link not instead staring at the pussy that Rhett's teasing his cock against, why?  
  
"Kelly Anne," Charlotte snaps. "I know you have condoms on you."  
  
"I-I-"  
  
"Don't bullshit me, Kelly Anne!"  
  
"Okay!" Kelly Anne scrambles out of Link's lap and fishes through her purse before she pulls two out and comes tentatively over to tuck it into Charlotte's hand. She stays a little too long, staring a little too hard, but Link can't find a single bit of jealousy, tries to figure out how to force it.  
  
"You're the best, babe," Charlotte drawls, eyes sparkling, and Kelly Anne squeaks when Charlotte grabs her wrist and tugs her in for a kiss.  
  
"Holy shit," Link whispers, but it gets swallowed under another one of Rhett's growls as Charlotte moves her lips without any hesitation and Kelly Anne shyly responds. He's never seen two girls kiss so freely and he's pretty sure it's one of the hottest things he's ever seen. He also doesn't know when he started rubbing himself through his briefs, but hey, here he is, his precum bleeding through the fabric.  
  
Charlotte eventually pushes Kelly Anne away with a grin as she opens the condom with her teeth, and Kelly Anne giggles, stumbling back over to Link's lap, climbing in, reaching to replace his hand with hers. "You like that, baby?" Charlotte teases as she shifts to slide the condom over Rhett's cock.  
  
"Fuck yeah," Rhett growls.  
  
Link rolls his head back as Kelly Anne fishes him out of his briefs and works the condom on over him too. Holy shit, okay, this is happening, and he is absolutely okay with it. And while Charlotte seems pretty determined to tease Rhett within an inch of his life, Kelly Anne doesn't hesitate to take him inside of her, and he gives a little cry as she sinks down onto him. "Oh my God."  
  
Kelly Anne giggles through her own moan, starts working her hips like a dancer, all smooth and graceful. Yeah, he's gotta be fucking dead at this point, right? There's no way this is happening.  
  
Charlotte makes a sound, and then Rhett's thudding onto the couch with a grunt, his curls tickling over Link's naked hip, and Link doesn't even jump, just looks over as curious as can be. That's how he gets to see Rhett's face when Charlotte starts riding him, gets to see how Rhett scrunches up his brow, how he gets a little color right on the apples of his cheeks, how the veins in his neck bulge out like he's barely holding himself back from twisting around and fucking Charlotte into the couch until it breaks.  
  
That's all there is for a minute, four bodies moving with each other, fingers pillowing against soft skin, mouths parted with gasps. He's not sure when it moves into just _fucking,_ where everything's a little tinged with red and there's soft swears and begging in the air, but it's probably between when Link started rubbing Kelly Anne's clit and when Rhett tipped his head back to watch.  
  
"You know what I want, baby?" Charlotte asks.  
  
"What's that?" Rhett asks, his voice in a whole other timbre twenty miles under where it usually is, deep and thick and distracting.  
  
"Wanna see you pay me and Kelly Anne back."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Charlotte grins as she drags her nails down Rhett's chest and makes him groan. "Wanna see you kiss Link."  
  
"What?" Rhett bucks into her particularly hard, so hard Link can see Charlotte arch and gasp, her head lolling back. "You're talking crazy, girl, I'm not kissing Link."  
  
"Link," Kelly Anne murmurs against his throat, soft and treacly sweet. "Kiss Rhett, baby."  
  
"Yes ma'am."  
  
"Wh-"  
  
Link and Charlotte join forces to drag Rhett up just enough inches for Link to get his mouth on Rhett's, and at first it's real awkward, their teeth clacking together and all that, but then they both turn their heads just so, and a fucking shock shoots straight up Link's spine. Link groans and Rhett reaches to grab hold of Link's hair and hold him there, right there, as Rhett plunges his tongue into Link's mouth and licks him clean.  
  
Rhett tastes like Rhett, is that weird? Like, it's something Link never thought about, but it makes perfect sense all over his tongue. It's sweet and addicting, and Link whimpers. There's something hot and tight around his cock and there's Rhett on his tongue and his brain's just foggy enough that he's pretty sure he's fucking Rhett right now, buried deep inside of him, and Link feels the rush of a good five years of memories rushing over him.  
  
Remembers seeing how Rhett wore his basketball jersey and remembers the first time Rhett laughed when Rhett finally sank into the low rich timbre of his changing voice and remembers Rhett strewn out napping on Link's bed with his shirt and chemistry homework discarded on the floor beside him and remembers when Rhett wrestled Link to the ground just a few days before and, and...  
  
Link goes to grope Rhett's chest, to feel the strength of his body, but there's a tit in his hand that's way too curvy to be Rhett's, and he opens his eyes with a whine just as Rhett pulls away from the kiss. And there's Kelly Anne riding Link's dick like she's in the Kentucky Derby, pretty and curvy and flushed like she's just seen the best thing that's ever been, and. And right, that's right, he's dating her, Rhett's dating Charlotte, yeah.  
  
"You satisfied?" Rhett asks, husky and thick, and Link looks down at him with wide eyes.  
  
"Not even a little bit," Charlotte teases. "Get to work, boy."  
  
They've both got their hands between their girls' legs but they've got their eyes on each other, blue on green, and it's like a staring contest but Link doesn't know who's winning, just knows that Rhett looks like he wants to fuck Link like an animal and that Link's got just enough of a foggy mind to admit to himself that he'd let that happen in a second.  
  
There's something real distracting about the low rumbly noises Rhett is making, okay. That's all Link has to say for himself when he comes just seconds later.  
  
Now, Link's a gentleman, all right, so he gets his mouth around Kelly Anne's nipple again and rubs her off while she squirms around his oversensitive cock and whimpers and pants, but he's pretty sure Rhett's got his eyes pinned to Link. Link likes being looked at. Link shifts so that Rhett can get a fantastic angle to watch Link get his girlfriend off, and he feels real damn charitable about it, really. Doesn't even feel embarrassed when Charlotte comes loudly, like she's gonna shake the roof off the building, a full five seconds before Rhett grabs her bruisingly by the hips and fucks up into her and groans roughly as he comes inside of her. And Kelly Anne, pretty Kelly Anne, brings up the rear, comes like a shy blossom, all soft and whimpering and wilting against his chest.  
  
"Well," Charlotte says in a hoarse voice. "See what I mean about letting loose, Kelly Anne?"  
  
Kelly Anne giggles and tucks her hair behind her ear, turning her head to see Charlotte. "I guess..."  
  
The girls tease each other softly and Rhett and Link stare at each other, sweat dripping down their temples, silence heavy on their chests. 'Cuz, see, the girls are gonna go home tonight, and Rhett and Link are gonna turn out the lights and climb into their bunk bed like this never happened.  
  
Alternatively they'll climb into the same bunk. Link's never been good at predictions. Not with a soft, foggy head like this.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings for this chapter include voyeurism, a character overhearing sex without explicit consent from the partners having sex, and fantasizing about a person in a relationship.

You'd think that a we-had-sex-with-our-girlfriends-in-the-same-room experience with a side of also-we-were-making-some-pretty-intense-eye-contact would maybe kinda elicit a little discussion type thing, right? Well, maybe if you're from somewhere where people actually talk about their feelings, but for a couple of kids from Buies Creek, that's not all that high on the priority list. They've got other things to do, like pass their classes, get degrees, make money.  
  
Thing is, though, they've got like at least two years left in college, so they've gotta pass the time somehow.  
  
Link, for example, passes the time by telling himself he's gonna bring up the, uh, the sex thing, but never actually does it. He runs scenario after scenario, scripts it all out, gives it a thumbs up, and then he'll walk into him and Rhett's dorm, and Rhett'll be locked up in the bathroom doing a B.M. or something. It's never all that convenient. Link even considers calling Rhett across campus to discuss it just so he doesn't have to look Rhett in the eye, but that'd require standing in a public place on a payphone and hoping that Rhett's in the dorm to answer their dorm phone, and that's not all that desirable neither.  
  
So he just doesn't talk about it. Thinks about it, yeah, but doesn't discuss it, 'cuz what's he gonna say anyway, _hey, brother, that thing where we banged our girls on the same couch was pretty awesome, we should do it again sometime?_ How's he gonna make sure Rhett follows his side of the script? He doesn't got the time to write it all out for him.  
  
So days pass. He goes on dates with Kelly Anne and they don't talk about it either. He gets his homework done sometimes and copies from Rhett some others. And he decides he's gonna forget it.  
  
One day's actually stressful enough that it happens. They've got midterms coming up and Link hasn't studied nearly enough for any of his classes, knows he can't copy off Rhett, knows he can't flirt his way into a decent study group without Kelly Anne finding out, so he just puts his nose to the grindstone and gets shit done. Writes notes. Copies notes. Reads almost all the pages in his textbook that he'd been skipping out on the past few weeks. And he's so worn out that he turns out the lights, climbs into his top bunk super early, and decides he's gonna just pass the heck out.  
  
It'd work any other day. Link could fall asleep in the middle of an earthquake, he's pretty sure. But there's too much information in his head, squeezing around his brain, trying to give himself an aneurysm. So he lays there staring at the ceiling for a good long while before he hears the door unlock.  
  
Now, he's got no right to feel so annoyed, all right, Link knows that, but here's the thing: Rhett comes strutting in with Charlotte in the darkness, murmuring to her and making her do that low husky laugh of hers. Rhett can see Link there. Rhett's tall enough to see the top of freaking Mount Kilimanjaro from the ground, much less the top bunk. So Rhett can see that Link's trying to sleep, and Rhett brings Charlotte in anyway. Doesn't matter that Rhett doesn't turn on the lights and keeps his voice low. He does it anyway. He's disrespecting Link's privacy.  
  
"Nuh-uh," Charlotte's saying with another low laugh, "that's where I'm drawing the line, he's literally right above us."  
  
"Aw, c'mon, sugar," Rhett murmurs, warm and thick, like maple syrup dripping all over Link's skin. "Link can sleep through anything, you know that."  
  
Link stares at the ceiling. The bed's pushed up right against the wall that's perpendicular from the door across the room. Charlotte may be a petite little thing, but Link's pretty sure that Rhett could see the whites of Link's eyes when they came in the room, could see that Link's sure as hell not asleep.  
  
Are they talking about doing what Link thinks they are?  
  
He can't hear Charlotte real well, the way she gets all soft when she whispers back to Rhett, but Rhett? Yeah, Link can hear that. He can hear Rhett crystal clear as he chuckles and hums, as he murmurs "Weren't you the one who was all about letting loose the other day?"  
  
"That was different," Charlotte says before she goes whispery thin again, and Link strains to hear.  
  
He's listening so hard that Rhett's quiet voice feels practically right against his ear. "Not even a little bit?"  
  
Charlotte scoffs before the bed shakes and Rhett gasps, and Link imagines Rhett getting thrown down onto the bed just like he'd been thrown on the couch next to Link, where Link could feel Rhett's hair brush against his hip with every little movement he made. "I swear, you could talk me into robbing a store."  
  
"You don't wanna?" Rhett asks, sounding genuinely concerned.  
  
Charlotte practically purrs. "C'mere, let me show you what I want."  
  
Okay, so this is fucking happening.  
  
Link's not exactly a ninja, but he's pretty sure that he could still sneak out of the bed. Maybe he could creep into the bathroom. Maybe he could get the door almost all the way shut. Maybe he could make them think that he was just in there the whole time while they were, uh. Enjoying each other's company.  
  
Yeah. He's totally gonna do that. He's gonna do it real good.  
  
Why aren't his legs moving?  
  
They're moving below him, that's for dang sure. There's the quiet unzipping of Rhett's jeans, the whisper of fabric moving away, and finally there's the rough rumble coming from Rhett's chest. Link closes his eyes to try and figure out exactly what's going on. There's a soft popping sound, a long series of them, that he's finally able to identify as kisses. There's Rhett's breath catching - he knows it's Rhett 'cuz it sounds exactly like every time he's heard Rhett out of breath in the gym when he conned Link into playing a game of one-on-one with him. Then there's a sharp inhale, dead silence, and a shaky moan.  
  
Link's pretty sure he should be disgusted by this, not feeling heat in his gut and a familiar dull ache in his briefs.  
  
There's a lot to reconcile with what he's hearing. There's no mattress squeaking, so he knows they're not fucking yet. It takes a second for it to creep up on him, but then he can recognize the quiet sounds as being from a mouth, and the low hum that Charlotte makes as being a little more resonant than expected.  
  
Oh. _Oh._ She's blowing Rhett.  
  
Damn, that lucky son of a gun. With one part of his brain Link tries to figure out exactly where Kelly Anne is right now, what she's doing, if she's near her phone so Link could get some after this is over, but it gets dwarfed pretty fast by the rest of his mind, the parts that are quickly trying to put together what this looks like. His thoughts linger for just a moment on Charlotte's full lips around a cock - _Link's_ cock, yeah, that makes sense to fantasize about - but then his mind's eye pans upward and, and no, there's Rhett's face.  
  
Rhett was next to him on that couch when Charlotte sank down on his cock. He'd wrinkled his brow and had turned all red and got all intense. He looks like that now, doesn't he?  
  
Rhett growls directly under Link. Biting his bottom lip so it's all muffled. His lip's probably turning all white where his teeth are digging in. It's gonna be all swollen. Is Rhett staying quiet so Link doesn't hear him? So Link can really sleep? Is this creepier than Link thought, him listening in, thinking all of this was maybe intentional?  
  
But no, Link realizes, he and Rhett have an unspoken rule, and that's that sometimes they jerk off in bed when they can't sleep and the bathroom's too far away, and they never talk about it happening, it just happens and that's it. And here's the thing: Rhett's real quiet when he gets off. When he's doing that all Link can hear is the slightly faster breathing, the super quiet sound of skin-on-skin muffled under the sheets, and very very rarely the slight choke when Rhett actually comes.  
  
Rhett's quiet when he gets off. He's always quiet when he gets off.  
  
Fuck, does he _want_ Link to hear?  
  
Heat undulates over Link's skin as his briefs go tight and suffocating around his cock. There's a thin line that he thinks Rhett might be straddling, somewhere between being loud enough for Link to hear but not too loud for Charlotte to suspect it. Would Rhett do that? He's clever enough. He's the jock of the two of them, yeah, but he's got a brain that's just as good as any. Maybe Link's over thinking it, though, maybe, maybe it's not that complicated, maybe it's just that Rhett likes making noise for Charlotte, just like he was doing when they all had sex in the same room.  
  
But Link's honest enough with himself to know that he's real vain. So he's gonna go with the other theory, the one that's about him.  
  
"Fuck, baby," Rhett murmurs - Link's brain short circuits and wonders if Rhett would call Link _baby_ if Link had his mouth around Rhett's cock right now - and there's a whisper soft sound again, like before but, but different, and when Charlotte moans Link realizes that Rhett's got a handful of her hair. "You're gonna make me come if you keep that up."  
  
Charlotte gasps as she pulls off, and Link hears the rush of her pulling at her clothes. "You got a condom?"  
  
"Uh, yeah, just..." There's rustling as Rhett gropes for their dresser, then Rhett swears as he knocks something over, and the two of them burst into breathless giggles. "Fuck, okay." They're not even trying that hard to be quiet anymore. That ruins the game, don't it? Link purposely shifts a little in bed, sighs real soft just to hear them get deathly quiet for a few seconds before they're shifting again, before he hears the condom open.  
  
There's the quiet squeak of the mattress, and when Rhett hums he sounds a little closer so he's got to have rolled Lin- no, Charlotte, he's, he's rolled Charlotte over. Link feels the air get stuck in his throat at the little slip of his mind, but then Charlotte's gasping and Rhett's groaning, and Link can't think of anything but how they must look right now as Rhett slides inside of her.  
  
The ache in his briefs can't be ignored anymore. It's like a little whiny kid demanding the one thing in a store that it can't have. It's real specific here too: it wants to be touched. Not happening. No. No way. Link's not gonna touch himself while Rhett's fucking his girlfriend so softly that he can barely feel the bed shake, not wh- okay, well, never mind, that's not so soft now.  
  
The way the bed moves, it's almost enough to make him feel like he's out on the water, like there's some turbulence that's making waves, and any other time it might make Link a little motion sick, but now? Now when he can hear the mattress squeak, can feel the bed move, can feel like he's right there with Rhett, it...it's just...  
  
_Would he fuck me like that?_  
  
That's it. The second Link gives that thought voice, he's gone. There's no Charlotte. There's no Kelly Anne. There's just Rhett fucking into Link so their bunks shake, his mouth against Link's ear as he growls, tries real hard to stay quiet so their R.A. won't hear a damn thing if he walks down the hall. There's a hand on Link's bare stomach - it's not Link's hand, not in his head - skimming down and wrapping around Link's cock.  
  
Would Rhett like how it would fit in his hand? Link knows he's not all that thick, and Rhett's got big fucking hands, maybe, maybe it wouldn't fit so good, but-  
  
"Oh, fuck, right there-"  
  
God, will Charlotte just shut up for fucking five seconds?  
  
Anyway, Rhett's hand would be real snug around Link's cock as he touched him, and he's strong, strong enough to make Link tap out first every time they play Mercy, so he'd probably feel great around him, all tight like Link likes. Could Rhett keep up a good rhythm with his hand while he fucks Link? He wouldn't leave Link hanging.  
  
All Link can remember is how Rhett held it together while he fucked up into Charlotte, how his face got all intense and tight until Charlotte came, how he wouldn't let himself come before she did. Would he do that for Link? Would Rhett stare down at him with his jaw tight and the veins in his neck bulging as he held himself back so desperately until Link came in his hand?  
  
Or would Rhett not even be able to help himself? Would he think Link was so goddamn hot that he wouldn't be able to hold himself back?  
  
Goddamn, but Link's glad Rhett's fucking Charlotte so hard now, 'cuz it means they can't hear how Link's fucking up into his own hand a little. His hips've got a life of their own, just like Elvis, and all it takes is thinking about Rhett pressing those massive hands into Link's thighs, lifting them up, getting Link right where Rhett wants him so he can fuck him into the mattress until Link's howling like a cat in heat, and then Link's digging his teeth into his bottom lip so hard that he can taste blood when he comes in his own hand.  
  
Even as Link feels like he's drowning in fire, his heart doesn't slow down and his fantasy doesn't end. His mind feels like cotton candy, but Rhett's still fucking him, Rhett's still taking what he wants, Rhett's still showing Link just how goddamn hot he thinks he is 'cuz he can't hold himself back, and, and-  
  
"Mm, fuck-" As Rhett moans sharply it suddenly gets muffled by Rhett's mouth against her- _his_ neck, and Link can practically _feel_ Rhett come, just like Link wants.  
  
Link lays there, hand slick and dripping, catching his breath as Charlotte and Rhett snuggle up, as Charlotte murmurs softly and makes Rhett laugh. They don't cuddle, apparently. The bed squeaks as one of them stretches, there's a kiss or two, and then someone's getting up. "Fucking midterms," Charlotte mutters.  
  
"Mmm, love that filthy mouth of yours."  
  
"Shut up," Charlotte says with a chuckle and a quiet slap on Rhett's body somewhere, and then there's the sound of her getting her clothes back on. "See you tomorrow? Beer at my place?"  
  
"Sounds great," Rhett murmurs, voice sounding almost hoarse after all those pretty noises he made.  
  
Charlotte bids him good night and lets herself out. Silence. No movement. The air conditioner unit kicks in after a few tense minutes. Then and only then does Link feel good about making a show of stretching, yawning, and climbing out of bed.  
  
His legs barely work as he gets in the bathroom and shuts the door. He rinses his hands. Takes a piss. Gets himself all cleaned up. Makes sure his briefs are back where they should be.  
  
He could panic about this. He could panic about this whole thing. He could just sit down right here on the cold bathroom tile and think about how he just got himself off thinking about being fucked by a dude. But it's not just a dude. It's Rhett. And, y'know, Kelly Anne and Charlotte, they really seem to like getting fucked. And maybe it's just the natural way of things that they do, maybe Link's not made for it 'cuz he's, well, he's not _them,_ but y'know what, maybe he is. Maybe he's made for it just as well as anything else.  
  
Doesn't matter 'cuz Rhett'd never do it, but hey. Link's been running out of material to jack off to anyway. So this is fine.  
  
Nothing to panic about. Nope. And especially not at eleven o' clock at night.  
  
Link opens the bathroom door and takes a second too long to reach for the lights. And that's why he sees Rhett staring at him from where he's lounging on his side on the bed, sheet pulled down real loose around his naked hips, head propped up with his hand.  
  
They stare at each other.  
  
This is it. This is the moment they're gonna talk about this. Link pulls up the script in his head. He gets ready. He opens his mouth.  
  
"Think we'll survive McHenry's test tomorrow?" Rhett asks.  
  
Link comes to a halt, leaning heavily into the door frame, gaping at him. "What?"  
  
"McHenry? Dude." Rhett laughs, rough and husky. "Don't think you're gonna pass if you can't even remember the name of our math teacher."  
  
Link feels like the floor's been pulled out from under him, like he's gonna fall, fall, fall until he hits the ground. "...dude."  
  
"What?" Rhett asks. They lock eyes again, but this time Rhett's eyes are hard as anything, hot, fiery, sending tingles straight down Link's spine.  
  
It's not time. Not right now. Not when Link's hands are still wet from where he washed them.  
  
Link sucks in a deep breath and flips out the bathroom light. "You gotta sit real close to me tomorrow, brother," Link says as he climbs up the bunk. "Gotta copy your answers. My brain's mush."  
  
Rhett laughs again. It's a different timbre. Tinged with something unspoken. "Yeah? What'm I gonna get if I do that?"  
  
Link lands face first on his own pillow. He takes a moment of breathing stale air before he turns his head to speak. "Guess you're gonna have to wait and find out."  
  
"Mmm." There's that rumble again. "Guess so."  
  
Link's pretty sure neither of them're gonna sleep good tonight.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings for this chapter include intercrural sex (penetration between thighs), Dom/sub undertones, and discussion of no-lube anal prepping and sex.

As far as Link knows, there's a method that you have to use when you're curious about something but also happen to have a significant other in your life. He's pretty sure most people would just go for the sort of nefarious, sneaky route where they try to make their partner think that _they're_ the ones who came up with the idea instead, but Link's never been real good at being sneaky, so he's gotta try another method, namely just asking straight out and hoping for the best.  
  
Kelly Anne's sweet. She's real pretty. She always makes Link laugh when he's around her. But as fun as she is to be around, Link doesn't really know what she'll say when Link looks her in the eye and tells her what's been on his mind recently.  
  
Namely Rhett. Rhett's been on his mind. Rhett's body, his voice, how his skin must taste, all of it. And if sharing just one kiss like they have would be enough to make Link be on Rhett's mind too.  
  
Now, Link could panic about this. He could panic about the fact that the other day in the shower Link got his hand around his cock and closed his eyes and tried to think about Kelly Anne's plush, glossy lips around his cock, but instead had thought about Rhett boxing him into a corner and looking at him with those real intense eyes. He could also panic about the fact that in his head, Rhett had barely even kissed Link, had barely touched his fingers to Link's sides, before Link came in his hand with a sharp groan and had spent the next five minutes with his head pressed to the wall and staring at the cum on his fingers and wondering when he became such a lightweight in his fantasies.  
  
But here's the thing: there's no point in panicking over a few little curious thoughts if he can't even do nothing with them.  
  
Link takes way longer than usual to leave his dorm. He makes sure his hair isn't sticking up real weird or anything. He carefully trims his beard so that it's just like he wants it, perfect angles and perfect length. He tries on about seven shirts with his shorts before he goes back to the first shirt.  
  
He's just wasting time, he realizes. So he sucks in a breath and goes to meet Kelly Anne outside of her last class. This isn't an ambush, he tells himself. It's just him with some questions that he needs answered, and they need to get answered sooner rather than later. He leans back against the wall outside her classroom and focuses on tapping out an even beat on the floor with his tennis shoe.  
  
On second thought, he doesn't have to do this. He can just go back to his room. He can just keep going on in this relationship and change nothing and stop thinking about Rhett pressing Link into the sheets of his bed and-  
  
"Hey babe!" Kelly Anne sweeps up to him with a huge grin and tugs him down for a kiss. "I didn't know you were gonna be here!"  
  
Link smiles down at her, can feel the nerves in his chest making his smile a little more twitchy. "Yeah, hey, how was class?"  
  
"Good, real good." She beams as she takes his hand. "What's up?"  
  
"Nothing, nothing, just, uh..." Fuck, he really doesn't have a plan. "Wanted to see you. Had a question and stuff." Kelly Anne's eyes widen and Link gives her another quick kiss to soothe away the worry. "Can we go somewhere? Maybe walk?"  
  
"Yeah, of course." Kelly Anne wrinkles her brow, like she's trying to read his mind, and Link almost laughs because there's no way in hell she'll be able to read what he's so nervous about. Link can barely read his own mind about this. "Anywhere specific you wanna go?"  
  
"Nah," he says, "nah, we can just walk."  
  
They don't walk anywhere real specific. There's not a lot of quiet nooks and crannies on campus where Link can finally shape the thoughts in his head without risking being overheard. So as they walk, he keeps an eye out for the pathways on campus with less people, and he steers Kelly Anne toward them with a soft hand on the small of her back. Kelly Anne talks about what she learned in class today, sweet and soft, and Link hums at the appropriate intervals to show that he's listening even as guilt bites at his gut for knowing that he won't remember a word of what she's saying in so much as five minutes.  
  
There's a fortune in having a break between classes at the same time that other people _do_ have classes. The paths get practically abandoned once the hour clicks over. Link thanks his lucky stars as he guides her toward a little copse just behind some of the buildings. Private enough.  
  
"Are you sure nothing's wrong, sweetie?" Kelly Anne asks. She sets her books down and leans back against one of the young trees, brow wrinkled in concern. "You look real worried about something."  
  
Link cranes his neck one more time, making sure nobody's approaching, before he moves toward Kelly Anne while he wrings his hands together. "I gotta ask you something."  
  
"Okay," she says, slowly drawing out the word. "Okay. Go ahead and ask."  
  
Link fidgets. He stares at the tree bark, studies an ant crawling up the side of it. He wonders why he didn't make a script for this moment, why he instead spent all his time studying the slope of Rhett's neck from behind while Rhett sat at his desk and begrudgingly wrote an essay. "About what happened the other night."  
  
Kelly Anne blinks.  
  
"The...the, uh, with Rhett and Charlotte."  
  
"Oh." Her eyes widen. "When...we were drunk?"  
  
Were they? He can't even remember. If he was only curious when he was drunk, does that mean he's somehow still drunk now? "Yeah," he finally says because he has to say something. "When we were drunk."  
  
"What about it?" she asks. A thought occurs to her and she gasps, reaching out, squeezing Link's hand. "Oh, babe, are you upset about it?"  
  
He closes his eyes. Fuck, he doesn't know what he's supposed to say, he doesn't know what to say not to fuck everything up.  
  
"'Cuz it was just a one time thing, okay, it was just, like...just a silly game. And the me kissing Charlotte thing, that didn't mean nothing."  
  
His mind immediately pounces on that. "Are you sure?" he asks. "That it meant nothing?"  
  
"Yes," Kelly Anne says. "Yeah, absolutely, not a thing."  
  
"What if it didn't?" he asks. "Like, if you're curious, it...I wouldn't be offended or nothing if you wanted to kiss her again."  
  
Silence. Dead silence. Link can feel the air getting thick. "What're you saying?" Kelly Anne asks with a laugh. "Link, I'd never do that. I'm not gonna cheat on you."  
  
Link paces away a few steps and rubs the back of his neck. "Is it really cheating, though? If I said it was okay? If I knew about it?"  
  
"You're talking crazy." Kelly Anne follows him and Link feels the hairs stand up on his arms, feels the keen need for space, feels the frustration that she can't read his mind to know he needs some breathing room from her right now. "Yeah, it'd still be cheating, 'cuz it wouldn't be with you."  
  
"I could be there, though," Link says. He turns to face her and puts out his hands, catching her shoulders before she can touch him instead. "Like, if that's what you're worried about, I could be there to just...supervise or whatever-"  
  
"I'm not a lesbian," Kelly Anne stresses. Her cheeks are flushed at the mere idea. Link feels a burn in his throat. "No, I don't want that, I just want you, and that's it."  
  
That's his answer. There it is, right there. But Link doesn't like leaving things unspoken. He likes getting everything out in the open air, fanning the flames. So he opens his mouth again. "I want you too. But I'm...I'm curious."  
  
Kelly Anne steps away from him, her pretty eyes swallowing her face with how huge they get. "What are you saying?" she asks. "You want Charlotte? Is that it?"  
  
"No, no," he says, shaking his head. "I want..." He can't say it. He just can't.  
  
But he doesn't have to. Kelly Anne covers her mouth to stifle her gasp. "Rhett?"  
  
He turns away from her. He kicks a stone away from them, watches it skitter down the hill they're on, watches it go far, far away from this, feels his heart pulled out of his chest with how bad it wants to follow.  
  
"You're not serious," Kelly Anne says. "Babe, that was...the kiss was just a joke. Like, a game, okay? That's all it was."  
  
"Okay," he says softly. He tips his head back and stares at the sky, letting out a rough breath.  
  
"It was just us playing around. That's college, okay? You do stupid stuff and then you never do it again."  
  
"Okay," he says again. He's done with this conversation.  
  
"You really wanna...wanna do things with him?"  
  
Link swallows hard. "Don't matter," he murmurs. "You said no."  
  
Kelly Anne comes to stand beside him, looking up at him, but he refuses to look at her, doesn't want her to see the, the hurt, the shame. "I just can't believe it. Did I...am I not doing enough for you?"  
  
"It's not you," he says. "Just-"  
  
"Just you wanting to mess around with a guy."  
  
"Can we drop it?" Link asks, looking at her.  
  
Kelly Anne stares up at him, lips thin with sad puppy dog eyes. "Link," she finally says. "I can't believe you even asked. We're together. Nobody's gonna let their boyfriend mess around with somebody else when they're dating."  
  
Link doesn't know what he wants from her right now. An apology? Her saying that she's sorry for not being okay with Link even thinking about touching somebody else, that'd be silly to expect. Advice? Yeah, right, Kelly Anne's totally gonna know what to do about how Link can barely drag his eyes away from Rhett these days when he changes clothes.  
  
He doesn't know what he wants. So he just huffs a sigh. "Okay."  
  
They're silent for a long moment, the air between them brittle and thin. Link can practically feel the unspoken words hanging between them, like the whispers of ghosts.  
  
He finally decides there's nothing left to say.  
  
"I've gotta go work on homework," he says, thumbing behind him. "Got an essay I gotta write."  
  
"Yeah." Kelly Anne clears her throat. "We're okay, right, babe?"  
  
"Yeah," Link says. He forces himself to meet her eyes, but he can't make himself smile. "I'll call you later, okay?"  
  
"Yeah," Kelly Anne says again.  
  
They part ways, Link's hands shoved into his pockets, Kelly Anne's boots clicking smartly on the path as they walk further and further away from each other.  
  
  
~~  
  
  
When faced with something that Link doesn't know how to fix, he typically has one response: he runs.  
  
No, he literally runs. The second he gets back to his dorm, he throws off his clothes, digs through his dresser, and pulls out the first tank top and pair of running shorts that he can find. They don't look good together. He also doesn't give a shit. It's tempting just to go running out the door barefoot, but he forces himself to sit down, put on socks, and put on real jogging shoes, even though his heart is tapping out a rhythm that not even his shaking foot can maintain on the floor.  
  
Once he gets outside in the open air, though, once he gets the sidewalk under his feet, it's like a needle's poked through a balloon in his chest. All the pressure isn't gone at once, but the slow, steady ease of it away is enough to let him think.  
  
So okay. That happened. That conversation happened. He went to Kelly Anne, he asked if she'd be comfortable with Link messing around with Rhett, and she said no. And that's that.  
  
Is that it, though? Maybe Link just needs to reassure her a little more. Maybe if he can cup her face and hold her eyes and tell her so gently, so sweetly, that Kelly Anne is the only person that owns his heart, that it's just his dick that's curious about Rhett, then maybe that'll change things. Is that what she's worried about? Being abandoned? 'Cuz he wouldn't do that. Especially not for Rhett.  
  
_That's probably 'cuz Rhett's not going anywhere._  
  
Link closes his eyes for just a moment before he huffs and opens them again, barely avoids tripping over a rock in his path as he jogs. Okay, so. That thought. That's...accurate, yeah, like, Rhett and Link are tied together at the hip. They've already discussed the fact that neither of them is going anywhere that the other can't. That's why they ended up in this college in the first place, in this fucking major, because it meant that the other person would be there, that they'd share a dorm, that they'd share classes. So yeah, Link's not abandoning anybody for Rhett, because Rhett's already there. Rhett's a given. You can't choose someone over another person if that someone is always there anyway.  
  
Link has the sudden question of what if Rhett wanted to transfer to another university, if Link would go even if it means leaving Kelly Anne behind, and _yes_ rings out in his head so quickly, so absolutely, that he clenches his hands into tighter fists.  
  
He remembers his fantasy too so vividly, how his body had responded to the mere thought of Rhett being in his space, being close to him, breathing his same air. It wasn't Link getting off to the thought of Rhett blowing him or jacking him off or fucking him. It was Link thinking about Rhett being near him. That was it. So is it really all about his dick? And not about anything else?  
  
Link doesn't want to answer that question, so he doesn't. Simply turns a corner and fixes his eyes on the horizon and keeps going.  
  
His relationship with Kelly Anne doesn't have to suffer over this, he tells himself. Literally nothing has to change. Link is with Kelly Anne. Link kisses Kelly Anne. Link sleeps with Kelly Anne. Link doesn't do any of that with Rhett. It's not like he's losing something by being with Kelly Anne.  
  
_You're already with Rhett, though._  
  
Link grits his teeth, feeling the burn in his legs, forcing himself to slow his pace rather than shifting into a full out sprint at the idea. Okay, yes, whatever, he's with Rhett a lot of times. He lives with him. He hangs out with him. He eats with him in the dining hall. He does homework with him. Of _course_ he sees him more than he sees Kelly Anne, like, that makes sense. Until Link moves in with a girl, he's gonna be with Rhett more than anybody else.  
  
He has the sudden fear that Kelly Anne will want Link to stop seeing Rhett, that she'll always crash their hang outs, that she'll look at Link suspiciously if he ever wants to be alone with Rhett. Would she do that? She wouldn't do that, right? He's too terrified to ask. Just the thought of her asking him to choose makes his throat feel like it's closing up.  
  
And then it stops. It opens. He breathes. Because if Kelly Anne ever asked him to choose, he knows what the immediate answer would be.  
  
As he turns on the home stretch to head back toward campus, Link forces himself to confront the issue. He lays out terms in his head. Who does he enjoy spending more time around? Who gave him the most electric kiss? Who can he imagine being in his life longer? Who would he choose to stare into their eyes for hours on end? Who makes him feel safer just being around them? Who does he remember more about their favorite things?  
  
It's not an issue of choosing. He knows that. He can have his friendship with Rhett without clouding it up with messy desire and curiosity and need. He doesn't even think Rhett would want anything there in the first place, that's, that's not even the point.  
  
It's that Link doesn't do a lot of casual things. He can play around and pretend he does, but Link likes safety, likes stability, likes knowing that whatever ridiculous shit he does he's not gonna end up alone in it. He's a man of habit. He's eaten cereal for the past three hundred and sixty-seven breakfasts. He likes things that stick.  
  
Link likes things he can see a future with.  
  
Link finishes his jog on the edge of campus and instinctively checks his pulse, calculates his heart rate, lets himself catch his breath. He cranes his neck back and squints through the setting sun as he stares at Kelly Anne's window. He swallows hard as he enters her dorm, moves more confidently than he can ever remember being through the other students, and he knocks firmly on her door.  
  
He waits. She opens it. She blinks up at him with wide eyes. "Hey."  
  
"Hey," he says. He flicks his eyes over her face and sucks in a deep breath. "Can I come in?"  
  
~~  
  
Do you know like how impossible it is to get a room completely organized when you live with someone else? For example, it takes Link roughly three minutes after he sees Kelly Anne to organize his side of the room. He just has to pick up some dirty clothes, stack some binders in the opposite direction of each other so they make a smooth stack, and put his textbook in a line against the back of the wall.  
  
After that, he assaults Rhett's side of the room.  
  
Rhett doesn't look up from his textbook as Link slowly starts shifting across unspoken territory lines, which Link takes to mean that he's pretty much allowed to get his hands on whatever's over here and make it look halfway decent for once. They don't even have that much furniture. They've got a bunk bed, two wardrobes, two desks, and two chairs, and then the single bean bag chair that Rhett has commandeered to read. So how does Rhett manage to make things so messy?  
  
It's like, okay, it's not even the messy part. Link's not mad at that. It's just that he doesn't get how Rhett can find anything at all. Every time that he has to watch Rhett sift through a pile of clothes on the floor and do the sniff test on a pair of boxers because he never folds and puts away his laundry, Link shudders. It's just impractical. There's so many better things to do with time, like eat or run or jack off, c'mon.  
  
"What're you doing?" Rhett asks.  
  
"Nothing," Link says as he starts sorting Rhett's clothes. Is it weird that he remembers what shirts Rhett's worn for the past week? Nah, probably not. He makes two piles, even though honestly the clean clothes have been on the linoleum floor for so long that they should probably just wash the whole damn thing. There's dead skin cells and hair on everything at this point.  
  
"Uh-huh," Rhett murmurs, unconvinced.  
  
Link doesn't look at him. He arranges the piles, then gathers up the dirty ones to toss in Rhett's never used laundry basket. Next come Rhett's books. There's scattered all over the floor, all opened haphazardly to pages, and Link goes to the drawer on his own desk that's filled with bookmarks and starts placing them into each open page, then closing them.  
  
"Wasn't done with those," Rhett says.  
  
"You're not reading them now," Link replies as he stacks them on Rhett's desk.  
  
Link keeps at it, taking the loose leaf notebook paper, studying the heading on the top of each, and sorting them by class. He doesn't know why they don't just share notes now, honestly. It'd save them time and storage space.  
  
He hears Rhett shift, which is odd, Link realizes, because he hasn't heard Rhett turn a page in a good half an hour. "You gonna talk about what's bothering you or what?" Rhett asks.  
  
Link stiffens. "Nothing's bothering me."  
  
"You're organizing the whole damn dorm," Rhett says with a chuckle. "That always means you're bothered about something."  
  
"No," Link snaps, "you just can't keep a damn thing put together in this whole dorm. What if there was an emergency, huh? Wh-what if somebody burst in here with a gun and said he was gonna shoot you unless you showed them your chemistry textbook in three seconds? What would you do?"  
  
"Link."  
  
"You just don't have any respect for your belongings, that's all." Link puts the trash can down a little too hard as he starts gathering the loose candy wrappers.  
  
"You're pissed off," Rhett says, but he doesn't laugh this time, thank God. "What? You and Kelly Anne have a fight?"  
  
Link stiffens. He swallows hard. "Me and, uh, me and Kelly Anne aren't...seeing each other right now."  
  
Link works through the silence. He doesn't look at Rhett even when he hears Rhett stand up. "What, you broke up?"  
  
"Yeah." Link wrings his hands together, then realizes he's doing it and drops his hands back to his sides. "People do that sometimes."  
  
"What'd you break up with her over?" Rhett asks. He sounds real calm about it. Link wasn't expecting that. He expected Rhett to maybe tell Link how great a girl Kelly Anne was, to call him crazy for ending it when he had a real good thing going, but to ask with such a soft, serene tone? To have Rhett looking at him so intently?  
  
Link can barely breathe. He forces himself to take in a deep breath, his eyes skittering across the room, and he rubs his arm. "Just, y'know, there was, uh, there was something I wanted, but she wasn't...she didn't want me to do it."  
  
"And what was it?"  
  
Link's prepared for this. He's made scripts. He's rehearsed them in his head over and over again when he's taking a shower. But here, now, right in the moment...he can't.  
  
Goddamn it all.  
  
"Just forget it," Link says, voice tight in his throat, almost choked. He tries to head around Rhett, tries to get to the door, but Rhett moves in front of him and Link looks up with a jolt, meets Rhett's eyes, sees the focused expression on his face. It just makes his heart skip a beat and Link's not ready for that, not right now, so he moves the other way, kisses his teeth when Rhett gets in front of him again. "Man, move, I gotta-"  
  
"Nah." He says it so easily, so seriously, and it pisses Link off is what it does.  
  
It's been a while since Link's played soccer, but he still remembers playing midfield, bends his knees and spreads his hands and fakes Rhett out, spinning around him and going for the door. He feels real accomplished for maybe half a second before Rhett breaks every soccer rule in the book and grabs Link by the wrist and bears him forward.  
  
The air's crushed out of Link's chest as Rhett pushes Link against the door, pulls Link's arm against his back in a rudimentary pin, but Link's no shrinking violet. He breaks out of the hold easily and throws his elbow back, takes satisfaction in how the bone jams into Rhett's solar plexus, and then he spins, throws his hands out, shoves Rhett back a step.  
  
Link takes a second to lift his eyebrows, to look real proud, and that's all the time Rhett needs to wrap a hand around the back of Link's neck and pull.  
  
The floor's never been that comfy to wrestle on, but honestly Link ends up on the bottom more often than not, so Link's pretty sure Rhett just don't know how often he bruises Link up when he throws him around like this. Rhett's tall. He's strong. But Link's lean and squirrely and has sharp shoulders and elbows. Rhett's got some chivalry in him but Link fights dirty. And today Link's not planning to lose. Not if it means talking about this.  
  
The air's alight with hitching breath and sharp swears as they tussle, getting their hands on each other, shoving their elbows into soft muscle, throwing their legs around each other's waists and twisting. Every time that Rhett starts to lock those huge hands around Link's tiny wrists, forearms, anything, Link jerks away, gets just enough breathing room to regroup before he pounces on Rhett again.  
  
Link can taste sweat on his own bottom lip when he sucks it into his mouth, gets a hand in Rhett's hair and _yanks,_ pulls a grunt out of Rhett that sends tingles down Link's spine. He digs his nails into Rhett's scalp, makes him yowl, gets a knee in the small of his back, knocks the breath out of Rhett as he holds him down on the cold tile.  
  
"Told you I don't wanna talk about it," Link hisses.  
  
Rhett doesn't reply at first, just breathing hard, but then he growls, rough and heated, and Link's just taken aback enough by the tightness of his own shorts that Rhett can jerk out of his hold. "What're you so scared of?" Rhett snaps. "I tell you everything!"  
  
"Nuh-uh!" Link's skin burns as he slides across the floor with a squeak. Goddamn, his leg's gonna hurt in the morning. "You didn't tell me you were dating Charlotte for a good week!"  
  
"Well!" Rhett opens his mouth, closes it, then grits his teeth as he throws out one of his unfairly long arms and snags Link's wrist again. "That was different!"  
  
"Was no- hey!" Link glares at him just as he gets flipped over and tugged under Rhett, as Rhett throws every pound of his weight on top of Link and pins him down. And though Link hates it, the pressure of Rhett's body almost feels like it's squeezing the words out of him. "Get off me."  
  
"Can't," Rhett says. He turns his head, his nose brushing through the hair on the back of Link's neck, and a full body shiver goes through Link that makes him feel like he's gonna cry. "I'm dead."  
  
"You're not fucking dead!" Link practically bellows. He twists and jerks around, but it's to no avail. Rhett's steady on top of him, the son of a gun. "I'm serious! Get the hell off!"  
  
"Nah." Rhett grabs Link by the back of the head and twists so that Link's head gets turned almost painfully, so that he's forced to look at Rhett's face. "Tell me what Kelly Anne didn't want you to do."  
  
Link scrunches up his forehead, gives Rhett the best pleading look he can. "Dude. I don't wanna talk about it."  
  
"I do," Rhett says, simple as that.  
  
They stare at each other long and hard before Link blinks first, jerks his head forward out of Rhett's grip, and rests his cheek forlornly on the floor. "Wanted to do something with you," he mumbles.  
  
"What? What was that? Speak up, brother."  
  
Link squeezes his eyes shut as tightly as he can. "Look, I goddamn wanted to mess around with you, and she wouldn't go for it, okay?"  
  
Silence. Dead fucking silence. Link can kiss those years of friendship goodbye. He can just wave to the best thing he's ever had in his life, watch how it goes dancing away.  
  
Rhett's nose tickles through Link's hair again. It's cruel. It's fucking cruel.  
  
"Will you get off me now?" Link asks roughly.  
  
Rhett sucks in a deep breath, not moving a muscle, before he opens his mouth. "Charlotte said we could."  
  
All Link's blood goes cold in a second. "...could what?"  
  
"Y'know," Rhett murmurs. He touches his warm lips to the back of Link's neck so that Link can feel them move as he speaks. "Mess around."  
  
It's like someone lit a match and pressed it against his heart. Everything runs hot inside of him, hot enough to burn his veins, and Link jerks his eyes around the room before he twists his neck to see Rhett. "She wouldn't say that," he says, words shaking slightly. "Nobody would say that's okay. That's not funny, dude."  
  
"Not joking." Rhett moves so they're practically nose to nose, where Link couldn't get away even if he tried. "She did. Said I could fuck you if I wanted."  
  
"Holy shit," Link whispers. He feels a little lightheaded, like he's just gonna pass out right here on the floor. He can barely breathe with Rhett pressing into him like this. And the issue in his shorts is getting real apparent the longer that he stays crushed on the floor like this.  
  
Rhett's wide eyes flick over Link's face. "So how 'bout it?"  
  
"You serious?" Link asks. "Y-you really wanna do that?"  
  
Rhett seems to consider this long and hard, his bushy eyebrows furrowing. He's still staring at Link's mouth when he finally speaks. "I really liked kissing you."  
  
"Yeah?" Link prompts. He feels brittle and weak inside.  
  
"Mm-hmm." Rhett cups the side of Link's face with one of his hands. He could snap his neck with one of those hands. Where does he get off cradling Link's cheek so gently? "Real funny, ain't it?"  
  
"I'm not laughing," Link says.  
  
"Yeah," Rhett murmurs. "Me neither."  
  
When Rhett moves to kiss Link, his whole body moves, hips and chest and shoulders rolling forward so Rhett can get to Link like he wants. It makes Link gasp against his mouth, all that extra pressure on his ass now just about crushing his cock into the floor painfully, and he whines, breaks the kiss out of desperation within seconds. "Dude, you gotta let me up."  
  
"No I don't," Rhett says with a grin. "I like you right where I got you."  
  
"You're gonna break my cock, brother," Link says. "Seriously, gonna snap it in half, you're killing me."  
  
Rhett's eyebrows practically fly into his hairline as he shifts just enough to look down where his hips are pressed against Link's ass. "Huh." He gives an experimental grind that makes Link cry out and press his forehead against the floor. "Well, can't have that, can we?"  
  
Rhett pulls back and Link whips around, gets a hand in Rhett's loose shirt, drags him down so Rhett's practically straddling Link on the floor, and they're kissing again, fuck, they're _kissing,_ how is that even real? They do that awkward dance like they did the first time they kissed, teeth clacking together, noses squished, but Link grabs Rhett's face and turns it where he wants it and they both moan as they sink against each other.  
  
Hell, Rhett could fuck Link right here on the floor if he wanted. Link doesn't know all the logistics about putting a dick in an ass, but he's pretty sure he's up for it anyway. Spit works pretty good, don't it?  
  
Every time Link's seen Rhett with his hands on Charlotte, Rhett's seemed to be content about keeping them where they are, like in the valley of her waist, the curve of her tit, something like that. Not right now. No, Rhett tries to swallow up as much of Link's body as he can with his fingers, his palms, and Link arches into him a little too desperately. He can't help it. There's trails of fire getting spread all over his skin, and there's a sudden desperate desire for Link to get Rhett's hands under his clothes, to see if they burn him to ashes there.  
  
Link's never really thought more than two steps ahead of anything he's ever done in life, so hey, why not shove his hem up and grab one of Rhett's hands and put it on his abs? They're nice abs, okay, Link's worked hard for them, and if the way that Rhett hums against his mouth is any indication, he's all right with them too.  
  
Link breaks the kiss with a grin, but his voice shakes a little when he asks "You like that?"  
  
Rhett looks a little overwhelmed, eyes focused on the tanned skin under his hand, and he huffs. "Shut up, man, you know you're good looking."  
  
Link chews on his bottom lip. He trails his fingers over Rhett's neck and wraps his hand around the back of it. "I, uh. I like being reminded."  
  
They lock eyes again for a long moment before Rhett catches Link's mouth again, dragging his nails over Link's skin. "You've always been good looking, man," Rhett murmurs as he thumbs at the little trail of hair under Link's belly button. "Always felt real lacking next to you."  
  
"Seriously?" Link wrinkles his brow. He catches Rhett's hand and holds it still. "Dude, you're good looking too."  
  
"Next to you?" Rhett laughs.  
  
Link could take his time and point out every time he's ever looked at Rhett and found something nice to look at about him. Or he can just take Rhett's hand and make it cup Link through his shorts. Rhett gasps, eyes flicking down to the hardness in his hand, and Link lifts an eyebrow. "You make me hot, dude," he says, voice just as shaky as his hands. What is he saying? Is Rhett gonna laugh at him?  
  
Rhett doesn't laugh. But he does rub Link's cock and make Link nearly topple over from how hard his arms tremble. "I want you, man."  
  
"Lucky for you," Link says breathlessly, "there's a bed right there."  
  
"Fuck you," Rhett says with a rumbly laugh.  
  
"Do it," Link says without so much as a smile.  
  
A normal guy might be tired out by that wrestling match they had, but no, Rhett just scoops Link up with his hands under Link's thighs, not enough to fully stand but enough to charge them toward the bed, to press Link into Rhett's mattress. Fuck, it smells just like him, rough and woodsy, a little bit of sweat from how active he is, and Link's torn between never looking away from Rhett again and burying his face in Rhett's pillow.  
  
That's real gay, he decides. He hasn't used that word yet, not even in his head, has had such incredible fear of it burned into his brain back in his years of church. But that's definitely a super gay thought, wanting to memorize what his best friend smells like. He smells like home.  
  
They press together, hands on hands, mouths on mouths, legs on legs, and Link doesn't think they plan to start rocking together, but they do, a smooth and primal rhythm that presses their cocks together through their pants and makes them gasp against each other's mouths. No, it's too hard to kiss like this when there's little shockwaves going through Link's body, when every movement makes his trembling twice as palpable. Rhett buries his face in Link's neck with a low groan and Link clings to him, lacing their fingers together, gasping against his ear.  
  
"Feel so good, man," Rhett murmurs, muffled, his voice vibrating against Link's skin and making Link's toes curl.  
  
"Yeah, don't, don't stop," Link whispers.  
  
"Yeah?" Rhett asks. He grabs Link's hip and shifts the angle just a little, just enough that he's got an extra little power behind each grind, and it's enough to make Link arch and cry out. "Fuck, Link."  
  
"Please-"  
  
"Please what?"  
  
"Fuck, dude, I don't know, just-" He grabs a handful of Rhett's hair, shoulders tensing as Rhett presses down again, sending those undulations of fire through his body. "Gosh, j-just more, please."  
  
There's that low rumble again, but Link can feel it this time, can feel it through Rhett's shirt right into his skin. "What do you want?"  
  
"I don't know, I don't know," Link babbles, because if he stops talking then maybe this will all stop. Maybe Rhett will figure out what a bad idea it is for them to be doing this. Oh, who the fuck is Link kidding? How can anything bad feel this goddamn good? "Already told you you could fuck me, just-"  
  
"Don't got the stuff I need for that, man," Rhett murmurs. His voice sounds so thick, like his throat is tight and clenched with desire, and Link wants more, wants so much more, wants, _wants._  
  
Rhett gasps when Link twists around, presses Rhett into the mattress, and when Link starts to sit up Rhett reaches with panic in his eyes, cups the back of Link's head. "Whoa, hold on, don't bump your head now."  
  
But Link wants and Rhett isn't giving and Link's damn impatient, so Link grabs Rhett's wrists and shoves them against the mattress and holds them there. He can feel himself panting, can feel the sweat beading on his forehead, and Rhett's hands go limp against the sheets as he stares up at Link with wide eyes.  
  
For a moment they stare at each other, Link straddling Rhett, Rhett limp and at Link's mercy, 'cuz here's the thing, now that Link's here, he doesn't know what to do. Just knows that having Rhett frozen under him and waiting for a cue is one of the hottest things he's ever seen.  
  
"Don't move," Link says as he lifts his hands, works on shrugging out of his shirt, and Rhett's eyes drop to Link's body in a second, taking him in from his broad shoulders to his hard nipples to his heaving stomach. "You hear me?"  
  
"Yeah," Rhett nearly whispers. He doesn't even move a finger. He barely lets himself breathe.  
  
Goddamn. Does Charlotte push Rhett around like this? Does Rhett like it when she does? Or is this just for Link? He doesn't even care about the answer, really, doesn't mull it over as he reaches down with shaky hands to open Rhett's pants up. His throat gets tight with nerves when Rhett's button doesn't open right away, when he thinks about what a fool he probably looks like right now, but then Rhett twitches in his pants just an inch under Link's hand and Link chews on his bottom lip, watching it happen again.  
  
"Please," Rhett whispers.  
  
Fuck, the power rush that shoots through Link is better than air.  
  
Link's never thought about how elegant the arch of Rhett's hipbones is, about how the trail of hair leading down to his cock is so perfectly formed, about how the thickness of Rhett's thighs makes them look so plush, but goddamn, he loves it. He flicks his eyes up to Rhett's face as he slips between his legs, Link's own legs dangling off the end of the bed. "You're too fucking tall, dude," Link says with a grin, and the words don't even look like they register, not when Link gets his hands on Rhett's thighs and pushes them so his knees point toward the sky.  
  
Link would like to say he's never thought about getting a dick in his mouth, but that's a damn lie. He swears he can get phantom sensations sometimes from his partners, swears that every time Kelly Anne got her mouth around Link's cock that Link could feel the weight of it on his own tongue. Never thought much of it. Not 'til now.  
  
"Will you do something for me?" Link asks quietly, voice almost slurring.  
  
"What's that?" Rhett asks.  
  
Link tilts his head to the side as he draws one of his fingers up the length of Rhett's pretty cock, feels the smooth, hot skin under his touch. He watches the swell of precum on the head as he remembers how humid the room had been when Link laid in his bed and listened to Charlotte blow Rhett in complete darkness. He thumbs through it and listens to Rhett catch his breath, remembers how husky Rhett's voice had been when he spoke to Charlotte so sweetly that night. "Will you call me baby?"  
  
He expects a laugh. He waits for it. But all he gets is Rhett sucking in a sharp, shaky breath just before he says "You gonna suck me off, baby?"  
  
There's a tingling all over Link's scalp, electric, visceral, enough to make his teeth click together, and Link ducks his head, presses his forehead against Rhett's thigh. "Yeah," he murmurs.  
  
"Fuck, bet you're gonna do so good, ain't you?"  
  
Link feels the tingling snake down his spine, feels goosebumps rise in its wake.  
  
"Got such a pretty mouth. It's gonna look so good around my cock."  
  
Link doesn't mean to moan so softly that it's practically a whimper, doesn't mean to drag his mouth loosely over Rhett's inner thigh and leave behind tiny kisses.  
  
"Thought about it, y'know."  
  
Link grinds his hips into the bed with a gasp. "Yeah?"  
  
"Mm-hmm." When Link looks up Rhett has his eyes closed even as he keeps speaking. "Charlotte asked me about it. She, she said she'd pull your hair while you sucked me off."  
  
Link doesn't get all that jealous about his girlfriends. Never has. But damn if he doesn't get sick to his stomach thinking about Charlotte with her hands all over Link while Link gets Rhett off. Link mouths at Rhett's thigh, digs his teeth in just enough to make Rhett's tummy clench. "Want you to do it."  
  
"What, suck you off?"  
  
"No, man, pull my hair."  
  
Rhett's eyes fly open and meet his gaze. "You mean it?"  
  
Link holds his eyes, can practically feel the thick string of tension hanging between them. "Do it. Right now."  
  
Rhett's hands shoot forward and his fingers rake through Link's hair, drag so sharply over his scalp that the tingles there build up and make Link moan. "Like that, baby?"  
  
Link feels torn between crying and fucking. He doesn't reply verbally, just lurches forward to drag his tongue up Rhett's cock.  
  
Fuck, the pretty sounds he can pull out of Rhett so easily, just...they're _incredible._ Sharp and loud and desperate, like they're all alone in this building, like nobody's gonna wonder, like nobody's gonna question. Link should give a shit. He doesn't. Not when he can suck lightly at Rhett's shaft, higher and higher and higher until he-  
  
"Oh my God," Rhett says when Link drags his tongue over Rhett's slit, then follows it with "Oh my _God_ " and almost hysterical laughter when Link gags immediately. "Dude."  
  
"You taste vile, man!" Link complains, high-pitched and affronted. He licks the back of his own hand, trying to get the taste of precum off his tongue.  
  
"Well, you're the one that decided to put your tongue there!" Rhett shouts back.  
  
"Ugh!" Link stares at Rhett's cock, demanding an answer for its betrayal. "What the fuck."  
  
Rhett laughs again. He cradles the back of Link's head so gently. "You tapping out?"  
  
Link glares at him. "Hell no."  
  
"Well, c'mon then, baby."  
  
It's like being punched in the gut with arousal. Link holds Rhett's eyes, brow furrowed stubbornly as he drops down and takes Rhett in his mouth. And the skin, that part ain't so bad. And the precum's gone now anyway, all licked up, taken care of, so. And there's something real fucking powerful about watching Rhett's stomach clench again, about feeling Rhett's fingers shake in Link's hair before they give a little tug that makes Link's eyes roll back in his head.  
  
Yeah, okay, he can do this, he goddamn can.  
  
The weight of a cock on his tongue is almost exactly like he imagined. He experimentally shifts it in his mouth, pushing it around with his tongue, seeing how it fits against his cheek, under his tongue, all of it, and Rhett lays there making little whimpery sounds as Link explores. "Oh my God," Rhett whispers, and Link quirks a brow and gives his first curious suck just to hear Rhett cry out.  
  
Goddamn, he's beautiful.  
  
Link thinks real hard about what he likes when a girl blows him, tries to think of a song that's got the rhythm he likes best, tries to match the beat as best as he can, tries to suck on the offbeat. He digs his fingers into Rhett's hips and feels the skin flush hot under his touch. And he keeps his eyes on Rhett's face, watching the veins thicken in his neck as Rhett tenses, watching how his face turns tomato red.  
  
There's nothing better than this, Link decides. Nothing.  
  
Except for when that bitter taste comes back on his tongue. Link squeezes his eyes shut, tells himself that it's just, just like some weird salad dressing or something, that Link's shoved down worse things that his great aunt Mildred made for Thanksgiving year after year. And besides, he can feel Rhett twitch in his mouth, and that's fucking incredible.  
  
"Oh fuck, Link," Rhett whispers, sounding a little panicked, nails scraping over his scalp. "I'm gonna come, dude, you gotta-"  
  
Link pulls off immediately. "Hot damn," he says as he gets his hand around Rhett's cock. "Thank God you said that."  
  
Rhett nods without looking like he realizes he's doing it, brow furrowed, gasping wildly, and Link climbs him like a tree, flicking his eyes down to Rhett's mouth as he jerks him off.  
  
"You gonna come for me?" Link asks.  
  
"Can I?" Rhett asks.  
  
Link groans and kisses Rhett once, sloppy and slick. "Yeah, c'mon, come for me, Rhett."  
  
The sensation of Rhett bucking his hips as he nearly shouts is one of the hottest things that Link's ever experienced. Link stares. He takes it all in, lets Rhett's voice and color and body wash over him, commits it to memory as cleanly as with a camera, because who knows if this will happen again? Who knows if this is the one time Charlotte will let him have this?  
  
Rhett drops boneless on the mattress, muscles limp, and breathes heavily. His eyelashes flutter. Link trails his eyes over Rhett's face, forehead to chin, and bites his bottom lip. There's something inside of him that feels like it's swelling, like it can't be contained in his tiny chest, and Link doesn't know what to do with it. He'd like to give it attention. He'd like to consider it. He'd like to think he's brave enough to do both those things right here, right now, as Rhett licks his lips and opens his eyes slowly, pupils still swollen beyond his irises.  
  
But Link knows better. He might know Rhett better than Link knows himself, but he's still aware that Link doesn't tackle issues head on. He observes them from a distance. He gets passive. He waits until they're impossible to ignore before he calls them out cleanly.  
  
So instead he focuses on the next most important thing going on in his body: his cock.  
  
Link stares at Rhett, beginning to rock gently against Rhett's side, and Rhett's head snaps around like he suddenly remembers that Link's there, that Link's wanting, needing. "You, uh..." Rhett clears his throat, still tight and rough. "You want me to blow you too?"  
  
The idea sounds amazing, but Link's enjoying being the best one at giving a blowjob so far. He knows it probably won't last long, not with his gag reflex, that the second Rhett gets his mouth around Link's cock then Link's newfound talent will suddenly be inferior. So he shakes his head. "Not right now."  
  
"No?" Rhett chuckles. He reaches up and pets through Link's hair, giving just enough of a tug to make Link gasp and press harder against his side. "What do you want, then?"  
  
"Uh..." Link tries to think of anything beyond the sweet, steady pressure of Rhett's body against his cock.  
  
"I know you, man," Rhett teases. "You're not gonna pick anything that denies you satisfaction."  
  
It takes a second for Link to hear that and he snaps his eyes up, frowns. "What the hell's that mean?"  
  
"Nothing, nothing," Rhett says with another laugh. "Means you like feeling good. Like the finer things. All that."  
  
Link grumbles wordlessly and pushes Rhett enough to change the angle that Link's getting against his hip. Okay, that's...yeah, that's apology enough. He nuzzles at Rhett's neck.  
  
Rhett slides his hand around the back of Link's neck and squeezes, giving a low hum. "Made me feel real good," Rhett murmurs. "Wanna make you feel good too."  
  
"You wouldn't fuck me," Link complains softly, feeling a little wounded.  
  
"I done told you, man, we don't got the stuff we need. You need lube and shit."  
  
Link huffs, almost a whine, and mouths at Rhett's neck for a second. "You got spit, don't you?"  
  
Rhett snorts. "I know you're joking."  
  
"Why'm I joking?"  
  
Rhett tugs, makes Link lift his head so he can look at him. "Link. No. You've gotta use, like, lube, and you've gotta stretch, and-"  
  
"Says who?" Link asks, wrinkling his brow.  
  
Rhett stammers for a moment, then gestures a little. "Charlotte."  
  
"Charlotte says that," Link says dryly.  
  
"Yeah! She made me be real careful."  
  
Link's eyes widen and he gapes at Rhett in dead silence for a few long seconds before he remembers how to use words. "You fucked Charlotte in the ass?!"  
  
Rhett frowns at him. "Yeah, like, a couple of times."  
  
"That's no fair!" Link says, voice cracking.  
  
"What? She's my girlfriend, man, why's it not fair?"  
  
"'Cuz I wanted you to..." He snaps his mouth shut because the air is still coming and so are the words, almost like he's drunk, and he's not gonna embarrass himself like that.  
  
Rhett stares expectantly. When he doesn't get nothing, he cups Link's cheek again, thumbs over his skin. "...wanted me to...what?"  
  
Hell, apparently he's saying it anyway. Can't hold anything in when Rhett's looking at him all sweet like. "...listen, if my first time fucking somebody's butthole's gonna be you, then your first time fucking somebody's butthole was supposed to be me."  
  
Rhett's eyes light up as he grins. "You wanna fuck me?"  
  
"Well, maybe!" Link says, affronted. It sounds silly when Rhett says it like that, like it's a joke.  
  
"Brother, how was I supposed to know?" Rhett laughs and tugs Link down to kiss him. "Anyway, you gotta ask if I wanna be fucked first."  
  
Link can feel himself pouting. "Do you wanna be fucked?" he asks slowly and reluctantly.  
  
"Yeah," Rhett whispers.  
  
Link perks up. "Yeah?"  
  
"Yeah, man, why not?" Rhett shrugs. "I don't know, all the sex stuff I've done's been pretty cool so far, so, uh, so maybe-"  
  
"You don't gotta explain," Link says. He gets it. He knows what that feeling is, the tickle of adrenaline in the base of his stomach that almost feels like he's gonna be sick, the unspoken question of _am I doing this 'cuz it feels good or am I gay?_ Big difference between just getting off or going to hell, basically, and not something Link's real ready to dig into.  
  
Rhett tugs Link down and they just rest there for a moment, side by side. It's only then that Rhett glances down and frowns. "You made me come on my shirt."  
  
"I didn't make you do nothing," Link says. "You could've aimed better."  
  
"It was your hand around my dick!"  
  
"Yeah, yeah."  
  
Rhett shifts to lift the sticky shirt off of his torso, to look at the stain a little better, and Link looks over him from top to bottom, seeing all of his pretty skin revealed to him, layered with tan lines, with soft hair, with the roll of muscle. He licks his lips, then has a realization. "Roll over," Link says.  
  
"Nah," Rhett answers.  
  
"C'mon, I haven't seen your ass, lemme see it."  
  
Rhett rolls his eyes but flops onto his stomach, wiggling his ass a little in the air. "There, you satisfied?"  
  
Link cocks his head to the side and reaches down, running his fingers over the curve of Rhett's ass. He feels goosebumps lift up in his wake, feels the warmth of Rhett's skin beneath that, feels the way Rhett squeezes his muscles under Link's touch. Just seeing how Rhett responds to him is enough to make Link's softening cock remember that it was hard before, that it can be hard again. "I know what I want," Link murmurs.  
  
"Yeah?" Rhett asks, sounding a little strangled again. "What's that?"  
  
"Here, let me..." Having an impulse and seeing it through in a smart, realistic way are two very different things. Link is great at being impulsive. He is also great at fucking things up because of it. He may not be at risk of breaking his pelvis again, but still. Link does what feels like rapid, very logical calculations before he flicks his eyes up to Rhett's face, sees how Rhett is watching him with his cheek on the pillow. "Open your mouth."  
  
"What?" Rhett asks, wrinkling his brow.  
  
"Just do it." Link walks forward on his knees, staring at Rhett's mouth, and he shimmies out of his briefs as he goes, kicks them aside.  
  
Rhett's eyes immediately train on his cock. "Change your mind?" he asks with a grin.  
  
"Said open your mouth," Link says. He reaches down, hooks a thumb into Rhett's mouth, and pries it open with very little resistance. Rhett flicks his eyes rapidly from Link's cock to his eyes and back again. "Can you get me nice and wet?" Link doesn't mean for his voice to get all quiet like that, but it does, soft and low, not nearly as rumbly and warm as Rhett's can get, but Rhett groans anyway.  
  
Rhett lathes his tongue over Link's cock. His forehead wrinkles up at that first taste of precum, but he doesn't slow like Link did, doesn't gag, just works at it until he opts to wrap his mouth around Link's dick. Link gives him one, two, three bobs of his head, enough for Link's toes to be curling in the sheets and his chest to be flushing, before Link pushes Rhett's face away. "What're you gonna do?" Rhett asks.  
  
"You're so nosy," Link teases. He rubs a firm hand down Rhett's back as he eases between Rhett's legs again.  
  
"Already told you we don't-"  
  
Link spreads Rhett's cheeks. "Shut up." Takes a long look at Rhett's body, every inch he can see, before he presses his slick cock between Rhett's cheeks and slowly grinds forward.  
  
Rhett digs his fingers into the sheets with a strangled little gasp as Link rubs his cock over Rhett's hole. It's a weird fucking feeling - Link's used to pressing through something that's dripping wet, that's practically trying to suck him in - but God if it doesn't make Link's skin vibrate and tickle like he touched an electric fence.  
  
Link hums, shifting his hands, pushing Rhett's cheeks together again, and yeah, that's, that's even better, the soft pressure, the feel of Rhett's muscles clenching and unclenching around Link. "Damn," Link whispers.  
  
"Feels good," Rhett murmurs back.  
  
"Yeah, man." Link rocks like that for a little while, watching his cock crest and wane, wonders what it would look like if it was disappearing inside of Rhett. How tight would he be? How hot? Would he be as textured as when Link's inside a pussy, or would it be smoother somehow? His mind races with the possibilities. He doesn't even notice Rhett's quiet sounds until the fog starts to clear. "You okay?"  
  
"Yeah, just..."  
  
Link quirks a brow, shifts his hips, hears the punched out sound Rhett makes again. "What, dude?"  
  
"You're, uh, you're kind of, you're rubbing on my, my balls, and it's really..."  
  
Link looks down, sees how his balls press against Rhett's when he pulls back, and that visual makes an explosion go off in the back of his mind. "It feel good?"  
  
"Just, just feels like a lot." Rhett makes a strangled groan and buries his face in his pillow, but he doesn't pull away. Just lets Link keep at it. Lets Link stay in control. Goddamn.  
  
Link runs his hands down Rhett's hips, his ass, his thighs, watching how the skin divots around Link's fingers, like if Link lifts his hands there'll be a tangible reminder left behind. Link's never wanted to bruise somebody before, but just imagining getting to see Rhett strip down every night so he can sleep in his boxers, getting to see those marks that whisper to Link that yeah, this really happened, dude, that's...that's real damn tempting.  
  
Rhett clenches his thighs together as Link wraps his hands around them, and that draws Link's attention, makes him slow his hips. "You okay?" Rhett asks it this time, and Link can't help but smile as he chews on his bottom lip, feel that burst of fondness at how easy it is for them to check in with each other. Best friends. Practically brothers. No boundaries. After the amount of isolating Link did as a kid, it's just cool, dude.  
  
"Yeah...yeah, just thinking."  
  
Rhett chuckles, but it sounds dirty somehow, filthy. "What, am I not keeping your attention? My ass not enough for that?"  
  
Link pauses. And then he presses his thumb between Rhett's thighs.  
  
Rhett tenses at first, glancing over his shoulder, and Link shushes him, rests a comforting hand on his hip. "What're you doing?" Rhett asks.  
  
"Nosy," Link teases again, drawing out the word, easing another finger between his thighs. "Squeeze for me."  
  
Rhett does it without hesitation. There's a tight pressure around Link's fingers, not as tight as, as being _inside_ of someone, but there's something fascinating there too, pairing the softness of Rhett's skin with the hard muscle he feels deep beneath it.  
  
Link has an inane thought - _I'ma put my dick in there_ \- that makes him laugh before he spits in his hand.  
  
"No, seriously," Rhett says. He cranes his neck to try and see Link better. "Like, what is, uh-"  
  
"I'm gonna fuck your thighs," Link says easily as he slicks his cock up again. He uses his other hand to tug at Rhett's hip, to coax him up onto his hands and knees, and he can practically hear Rhett's racing thoughts as he goes right where Link wants him.  
  
"Uh...why?" Rhett asks.  
  
Normally Link might be offended by Rhett questioning him and demanding answers - questioning is Link's _modus operandi_ and when Rhett picks it up it's normally because Rhett doesn't trust him enough to have thought something all the way through - but right now Link can hear the hesitation, the tentativeness, and he leans down to kiss the small of Rhett's back before he replies. "'Cuz you're hot," he murmurs, feeling goosebumps rise under his lips. "And I wanna fuck you. And you keep saying spit's not enough-"  
  
"Listen, I'm not saying I'm right, just that it won't work-"  
  
"-so," Link interrupts again with a grin, "I'm gonna have what I want anyway."  
  
Rhett goes quiet as Link spits in his hand again, can't quite meet Link's eyes.  
  
"That okay?" Link asks.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, just, uh..." Rhett clears his throat. "You...you think I'm..."  
  
"Hot," Link replies, clicking the last letter for emphasis. "Good looking. Gorgeous. Like a million bucks." Link folds himself over Rhett's body, cock pressing against his ass again, and watches how Rhett drags handfuls of sheets into his hands, how Rhett shivers. "You make me feel real funny, dude, but it's kind of super cool."  
  
Rhett dips his head, lips pulling into a quiet little smile, and Link grins again in response. He lays down two more kisses on Rhett's spine before he pulls back and slides his hand between Rhett's thighs. "Okay, that feels really gross," Rhett says.  
  
"I'm not gonna risk chafing on your thighs." Link rubs his own spit on Rhett's skin, gets a little more here and there until he's satisfied, then gives his cock one last slick tug just to feel the tickle of fire down his back as he looks over Rhett, sees how patient he's being, how he looks like he's starting to shake. "You ready for my cock, baby?" Link asks, his voice whisper thin.  
  
_"Oh."_ Rhett ducks his head, bucking his hips forward without realizing, catching his breath. "Oh, fuck yes, Link, please."  
  
Link's eyes nearly roll back in his head just from the bite of pleasure inside of him alone. "Be real still for me, okay?"  
  
Rhett trembles with the force of keeping his muscles rigid. Does just what Link wants. Just what Link says. Link rocks forward, pressing his cock between Rhett's thighs, and Rhett makes a low sound, resting his forehead on the bed.  
  
As Link fucks between Rhett's thighs he can feel the way that Rhett's body responds to him, how his muscles shiver and clench around Link in turn. It's not the same heat or wetness Link is used to when he's inside somebody, but if anything that makes it so much damn hotter, knowing that Link wants Rhett so goddamn bad that he'll get creative, make do, do whatever it takes just to fuck him, and that Rhett will let him, will let Link handle him and pull him where he wants him and drip Link's own spit all over his body just so Link can have him.  
  
Link can practically feel his precum making it easier, and just, just-  
  
"Damn," Rhett murmurs, pairs his word with a groan.  
  
"Yeah," Link murmurs back.  
  
Link presses his thumbs into the dimples on the small of Rhett's back, sees how perfectly they fit there. He watches a trail of red ease down Rhett's arms from his neck and chest. He hears how Rhett's breath catches even though there's no way he can be hard again, no way that he's getting off to this.  
  
No, he's just happy to bend over for Link and let Link take what he wants.  
  
"You like this, baby?" Link asks. A full body shiver racks Rhett's entire form, visible, palpable, and Link doesn't know if it's in response to the question or the pet name, but he's happy either way. "You like me using you like this?"  
  
Rhett makes a choked sound and arches his back, coming up onto his elbows. "Link-"  
  
Link grabs a handful of Rhett's hair and shoves his face back into the sheets, hearing how Rhett cries out and bucks his hips backwards, takes Link further between his thighs as Link moves forward. "Goddamn," Link whispers. He feels his chest swelling with the power, feels his cock twitch with how pretty Rhett looks when he doesn't fight Link, when he just...  
  
"Y-you can..."  
  
"What's that?" Link asks. He twists his hand, drags Rhett's head around so he can see Rhett's mouth move.  
  
Rhett licks his lips. "You can...can go harder. If you want."  
  
Link groans and shoves Rhett's shirt up around his neck, then drapes his body over Rhett's, feeling Rhett's naked skin against his own, how warm and overcome he is. "You want me to?" he asks. His voice doesn't even sound like his own. It's rough and slightly sweet, a sweetness that creeps up on him, like an afterthought of a flavor.  
  
Link's used to Rhett being stubborn, but now he watches Rhett's eyelashes flutter, watches him nod.  
  
"Say it," Link presses. He slows his hips to a bare tease.  
  
"You can fuck me," Rhett says a little louder. "C'mon, Link, want, want you to fuck me real bad."  
  
"Want me to fuck you into the mattress?" Link asks conversationally, and he grins as Rhett starts pressing back against him feverishly. "Want me to get you all roughed up, baby?"  
  
"Mmm..."  
  
Link lets Rhett's growl wash over him. "Say please."  
  
Rhett shivers, looks like he's considering saying no, like it's almost impossible to let Link have this, but just as Link starts to stop the roll of his hips, Rhett reaches behind him and grabs Link's thigh, squeezes like he's a drowning man. "Please."  
  
Link gets his hands on Rhett, shoves him straight into the mattress, and fucks the shit out of him.  
  
It's not even the physical stimulation getting him off, he realizes, it's hearing Rhett's breathy moans, it's watching Rhett move back against him, it's seeing how sweat covers Rhett's back in a faint sheen. It's being here with him, here in Rhett's bed, covering it in both of their bodies, whispering pleas into its sheets. It's Link knowing that Rhett'll never be able to climb into bed again without thinking of how he tumbled into it with Link. It's Link knowing that Charlotte will ask how things went and that Rhett with shiver and go tongue tied and stammer to try and show how unaffected by the whole thing he was.  
  
Link digs his teeth into the back of Rhett's shoulders, feeling how they sink into the muscle, feeling how Rhett twitches and grunts but doesn't fight it. He pants against his skin. He tastes the sweat that he worked Rhett up enough to get.  
  
This is all Link's doing. Everything here, every mark and every sound and every wrinkle, it's all 'cuz of Link.  
  
Goddamn, he wants to be inside Rhett.  
  
Link groans and pulls out from between his thighs. "Don't move," he says.  
  
For probably the first time in his whole cotton picking life, Rhett doesn't question something Link says. He doesn't try to correct it. He lays there as Link gets a hand around his own cock and starts jerking off.  
  
"You're gonna look real pretty when I fuck you," Link drawls, eyes dancing over the slope of Rhett's back, over the little ripple of Rhett's muscles as he breathes too hard. "All begging and sighing and needing me, huh? Wanting more?"  
  
Rhett moans sharply and squeezes his eyes shut, lips parting.  
  
"Not gonna be happy 'til I come inside you, are you? 'Til I give you what you want?"  
  
"Please," Rhett murmurs, voice nearly cracking, desperate.  
  
"Gonna come on you," Link says. "Gonna get you all covered in me like..." The words bubble up but he chokes them down, hears them reverberate in his head. _Like I deserve, gonna get you all painted up with me so everybody knows exactly who you belong with._  
  
Rhett squeezes Link's thigh, pants hard enough that the sheets shift near his mouth, and Link looks up and catches Rhett's eyes. And somehow locking eyes with him is all he needs to squeeze his hand a little tighter, pump a little harder, and feel a sharp swell in his gut just before tingles race through his entire body.  
  
Link paints Rhett's back with his cum, all the way from the small of his back to the top of his spine. He bites his bottom lip and lifts his brows. And he holds Rhett's eyes the entire time.  
  
Link barely catches himself from collapsing on Rhett. He presses his hands into the sheets around Rhett's waist, trying to catch his breath, and feels the heaviness of the air settle down on him. His cum glistens on Rhett's back and Rhett makes no attempt to move. Link flicks his eyes all over Rhett's body, over every inch he can see, but he keeps coming back to Rhett's soft, drowsy gaze and how Rhett won't look away from him for a second.  
  
There's sweet words on Link's tongue, words that he's terrified to consider, to give even a thought toward, words of desperation and need and adoration. He can feel Rhett's legs still warm between his own, and he squeezes his own thighs together, feels how they bracket Rhett's.  
  
"So," Link murmurs.  
  
Rhett shifts, twists his torso so he can see Link better.  
  
"That...that happened," Link says. He's trying to prompt, he realizes, trying to get Rhett to say...say _anything._  
  
"Mm." Rhett just settles for a grunt and a nod.  
  
Is it over? Is the moment broken? Link wrinkles his brow, tries to catch his breath like he just finished a marathon. "Lemme, uh..." Link swallows hard and starts to crawl away. "Lemme get a towel-"  
  
Rhett's hand snaps out like a snake and wraps around Link's wrist. "We can just use my shirt, dude, it's fine."  
  
Link feels swollen, like the world is too much for him to handle right now. He nods, reaches for Rhett's shirt, then jerks away when his fingers brush over Rhett's skin. It's like he's electric. "You can, uh..."  
  
Rhett slides out from under Link and pulls the shirt over his head. He's got arms as long as a ruler, it feels like, and he uses them to scrub the cum off his own back without even blinking.  
  
The air is still thick and heavy. Link darts his eyes around the room. There's the urge to go running again, to rip away from Rhett like a bandaid, to take off and sprint through the streets until he collapses from exhaustion as far away from Rhett as he can, so he can, can hold _this,_ this moment, this feeling like this is _right_ and _good._  
  
'Cuz soon the feeling's gonna stop, and they're gonna be them again. Just two guys. Two guys that fucked.  
  
"I need to go," Link says distantly without realizing it.  
  
"Why?" Rhett asks.  
  
"Dunno, just, uh. Just gotta..."  
  
"Gotta run?"  
  
Link whips his head around and looks for the challenge in Rhett's eyes. It's not there. Just soft green twinkling back at him, gentle and curious. Link swallows hard. "You've got a date with Charlotte tonight."  
  
"In a while." Rhett holds out his hand. "C'mere."  
  
"Why?" Link asks back, feeling embarrassed to parrot him like this.  
  
"'Cuz," Rhett says, "I'm a cuddler."  
  
Link wrinkles his brow. "You didn't cuddle Charlotte."  
  
"When?" Rhett asks.  
  
"When..." Link's never given it voice, never confessed, so to speak. "...when you fucked. In here."  
  
Rhett smiles. "She don't like to cuddle. And I do." He quirks a brow. "What, do I smell bad, is that it?"  
  
"Shut up."  
  
Link's cheeks are flaming as he flops down beside Rhett. He stares petulantly at Rhett's collarbone for a long moment, his own arms tugged up tight around his chest, before Rhett chuckles and grabs Link and pulls him in. Link's not really sure how his cheek ends up pillowed on Rhett's chest, but here he is, here _they_ are, and it's...it's not weird.  
  
"Is this weird?" Link asks.  
  
"Only if you make it weird," Rhett says philosophically.  
  
"Huh." Link reaches out and lays a tentative arm around Rhett's waist. Nah, it's not weird, he guesses. Just two best friends cuddling naked after they got each other off. Perfectly normal.  
  
It's probably not normal to immediately drop off into a nap while cuddling with your naked best friend, but hey, post-coital Link is anything but normal.  
  
~~  
  
Link doesn't want to go get coffee with Rhett and Charlotte. He's tired from staying up too late getting essays done. He's sore from several more days of absently jogging around campus trying to get his head on straight. He could sleep right now. He could sleep forever.  
  
But no. Rhett asks. And Link is unable to deny Rhett anything.  
  
Link purposely sits in the corner at their table, his hoodie loose around him, practically swallowing him, while Rhett and Charlotte chat on the other side of the round table. Link doesn't try to follow the conversation. Just watches.  
  
They don't touch each other. They're clearly delighted to be near each other, making eye contact, laughing at each other's jokes, but they don't scoot in closer. They don't touch. They don't kiss. It's definitely confounding.  
  
The more that Link watches, the more that he realizes it feels...really familiar, somehow.  
  
The only real issue is that they continue talking specifically to each other, and even though Link wanted that twenty minutes ago, he's been warmed now by the coffee in his body and the caffeine in his blood, and that means that he wants attention, as usual, so he props his elbow loudly on the table and shoves his chin in his palm and looks at them very hard.  
  
Neither of them look back at him or even stop their conversation.  
  
That's not cool. Link purses his lips for a moment before he decides he should try another method. "Charlotte?" he asks, absolutely interrupting their conversation, but while Rhett looks at him with annoyance in his eyes, Charlotte gives him a smile and quirks a brow. "So Rhett and I were having this debate the other day-"  
  
"No," Rhett says.  
  
Link waves him off. "And I wanted to know if a woman like yourself who's so, so refined, so experienced in the ways of the world, could solve it for us."  
  
Charlotte snorts as she stirs through her latte. "What you're saying is you wanna be right," she teases.  
  
"No, no, absolutely not, no, I just, uh..." Link squints in thought. "...j-just want the world to be governed by rightness and facts, y'know? Like-"  
  
"Don't ask, man," Rhett says. He reaches across the table and touches Link's other hand, sends a shockwave straight through Link, and Link stares at him. "I'm begging you."  
  
At first Link feels willing to be distracted. But then he realizes that that's what Rhett wants all along. And while Link will do anything Rhett asks for him to, he's not as inclined to _not_ to something Rhett asks him _not_ to do. So he flashes him a smirk, twists his hand to tickle Rhett's wrist, and leans back toward Charlotte when Rhett jolts away with a more high-pitched giggle than he probably wants to have. "All right, so here's the thing."  
  
"Lay it on me," Charlotte says, lifting her cup to her mouth.  
  
"So anal sex."  
  
Charlotte promptly chokes on her latte, and they take a moment to make sure she's breathing again, eyes wet with unshed tears, before she croaks "Go on."  
  
"Yeah." Link gestures freely with his hands as he goes, sort of like a classroom presentation. "So one of us thinks that, like, spit would be appropriate lubrication for anal, because, y'know, it's wet and slippery and stuff, and then the other one thinks that it won't work and you need more, like, hardcore lube stuff? Whatever that would be?"  
  
"Oh my God," Rhett murmurs, head in his arms on the table.  
  
"So yeah, which one of those is right?"  
  
Charlotte blinks a few times like it's a simple question, looking between them. "Well, I mean, spit can work-"  
  
"Are you serious?!" Rhett just about bellows the roof off the coffeeshop, making a lull in the rest of the conversation.  
  
"Oh, wow, I wonder which side yours was," Charlotte says dryly. She starts gesturing too, mirroring Link's creative hand motions, and Link feels pleased as punch by it. "So listen, your rectum, okay, it's got, like, it has rudimentary lubrication itself, right? 'Cuz you've got these little glands that release all this fluid stuff, 'cuz otherwise how're you gonna take a shit?"  
  
Rhett gapes at her. "I-I-"  
  
"I mean, not all asses are the same," Charlotte adds, waving that off. "But some people have, like, super greedy buttholes, okay? They'll just suck in a finger like it's nothing and-"  
  
"I can't believe I'm listening to this," Rhett says, voice sounding a little dreamy and tinkly.  
  
"So do you have to be more careful if you try just using spit? Yeah. Should you still do some stretching to make sure it's comfortable? Also yeah. But like, I've known people who enjoy anal with pretty much no prep and-"  
  
"How?" Rhett asks, voice cracking. "How did you meet these elusive people who may or may not exist?"  
  
Charlotte doesn't speak, just waggles her eyebrows at him with a smile.  
  
"Oh my God," he repeats. His head goes back into his arms.  
  
"Ha ha!" Link fistpumps in triumph. He holds a hand out for Charlotte to high five, watches her stare at it, then high fives himself. "I knew it!"  
  
"You realize what you've done, right?" Rhett asks mournfully.  
  
Charlotte shrugs. "Hey, man, it's not my asshole we're talking about here."  
  
Link leans over and grabs Rhett's wrists, making Rhett look at him, and lifts his eyebrows expectantly. "Say it."  
  
Rhett shoves back from the table. "Anyway, I'm gonna go get a pastry."  
  
"Say it!" Link calls after him.  
  
"I'm not saying you were right!" Rhett calls back.  
  
Link sits back in his chair with a big grin anyway, tucking his hands behind his neck. He's heard everything he needs to hear. He wiggles in the chair, wondering about his body, himself, if he can get Rhett to answer some more questions for Link or if Link should maybe do it himself.  
  
Well, he thinks, who needs to save time for homework when you can just spend all your time fingering yourself anyway?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings for this chapter include masochism, no-lube anal fingering, Dom/sub play, and subspace.

Ultimately it's the beer that gets Link's mind to start opening up again. There's no other easy transition, really. How do you go from just two best friends hanging out watching a basketball game together on your shitty TV you just bought to saying _"Hey so remember that time we stuck each other's dicks in our mouths?"_ Not easy, man. There needs to be a manual for these kinds of things.  
  
That's what he feels and remembers most vividly about this night. The beer on his tongue. The game going to commercial. Rhett stretching out long and lean on the couch. And the tingling on Link's tongue before he opens his mouth.  
  
"Hey, so, Charlotte," Link says to begin with.  
  
Rhett looks over. He quirks his brow. When Link doesn't immediately respond, Rhett prompts with "Yeah?"  
  
"So she, uh. Okay." Link takes another drink and then sets the beer aside, twisting on the couch to face Rhett with his legs crossed over each other. "How weird is it gonna be for us to talk about what happened the other night?"  
  
Rhett wrinkles his brow. "What, the sex?"  
  
The sex. Link feels his heart thud a little faster. "Yeah, the sex."  
  
"It's not weird." Rhett snorts and looks back at the TV. "Just happened, brother, there's nothing weird about it."  
  
"Cool." Link scoots forward another inch just to draw Rhett's eyes back to him. "So the sex, Charlotte was cool with that?"  
  
"Yeah?" Rhett chuckles. "Man, I done already told you she was all right with us messing around. Why're you asking me this _now?_ "  
  
"Because I..." God, he wants more than the beer. He wants whiskey in him, maybe some scotch, whatever is foul enough to make him gag and to burn out the last of those anxious receptors in his brain. "Look, I wanted to know if it was just a one time thing or what."  
  
Rhett takes in a deep breath, sharp and audible through his nose, and Link takes that as an excuse to look over him from forehead to chin, to try and read every line, every wrinkle, every tiny minute movement so that he can know what Rhett's thinking. Can't read his mind yet, but this is pretty damn close, he guesses. "I don't know, man, she said it was up to me. Said she didn't care."  
  
That is absolutely not the answer that Link is looking for. Link scoots forward again, coming onto his knees on the cushion, tilting his head to the side when Rhett's eyes focus on his face again. "You know what I'm trying to ask you here, man."  
  
"Maybe I want you to ask it anyway," Rhett says as he turns on the couch too, torso strong and close enough for Link to touch.  
  
"You're a jerk," Link says with a slow grin.  
  
"I know." He doesn't look the least bit bothered.  
  
So Link huffs. He rubs the back of his neck. He flicks his tongue over his lips. And finally he opens his mouth. "Do you want it to happen again?"  
  
Rhett shrugs, casual as anything, but his skin flushes, the blush creeping from his cheeks all the way down to his neck. "I mean, it was a pretty good time, wasn't it?"  
  
"Yeah," Link murmurs, eyes sliding down to Rhett's mouth.  
  
"Like, it felt good, all that."  
  
Link bites his own bottom lip. He chews on it, letting the silence settle over them as thick as a blanket. "We can do a lot more to feel good."  
  
"You think so?" Rhett's voice drops into that nice rich timbre, like a dark roast of coffee.  
  
"Yeah, man."  
  
"What do you have in mind?"  
  
Link has a million and one things in mind, fantasies and curiosities a mile thick, and he grabs for the remote, fingers feeling clunky and thick on it, before he turns off the TV. "Y'know, you've got some real nice hands here," Link says conversationally. He reaches out and grabs one of Rhett's hands, lifts it between them, and traces his fingers gently over Rhett's skin. "Like, damn, brother. Your fingers are nice and thick. Just gets a guy thinking."  
  
"Oh, does it?" Rhett leans in a little more and Link feels the instinctual urge to press forward, to press their mouths together, just barely resists it because man, it'll be sweeter if he waits.  
  
"Yeah." Link tilts his head a little more. "Think I want 'em inside me."  
  
Rhett grins and chuckles, shaking his head. "All right, I, uh..." He clears his throat. "So confession time. You ready for this?"  
  
Link nods. He's ready for anything Rhett will give him.  
  
"Okay, so. I wasn't sure if you'd wanna do anything, but just in case you did, I...I went out with Charlotte and I bought some lube."  
  
"Well, goddamn," Link says, sitting a little taller. "Go on, get it out, man."  
  
"Here's the thing." Rhett winces. "I left it at her apartment after I bought it."  
  
Link stares. Rhett stares back. Link immediately gets off the couch.  
  
"What're you doing?" Rhett asks.  
  
"We're going to Charlotte's apartment right fucking now," Link replies.  
  
Rhett laughs and grabs Link's wrist, tugging him back, and Link stumbles right into Rhett's lap, his head swimming a little from the beer. "Now, hold on there, Link," Rhett drawls. Link twists to straddle Rhett, his breath caught in his throat, and Rhett's eyes twinkle as he looks up at him and slides his fingers through Link's hair, leaving a trail of tingles in his wake. "There's a hell of a lot we can do that don't involve fingering."  
  
Link can't stop himself anymore. He leans down and kisses Rhett. It feels so much more natural now somehow, the taste and feel of Rhett's mouth feeling like it belongs to Link, belongs _with_ Link, and as Rhett hums and trails his fingers up Link's spine, Link arches his back, pushes a groan into Rhett's mouth.  
  
There's something electrifying about Rhett's hands settling on Link's waist, firm and stable, but there's that taste of power that goes to Link's head when he feels Rhett's fingers trembling. Yeah, that's right, this isn't just Link feeling overwhelmed. This isn't just Link feeling like he's tipping out of a plane without being sure that his parachute is gonna work. No, this is Rhett and Link both hitting something huge and new headfirst and trying to figure out how they fit into it.  
  
Link likes having answers. But there's something so enticing about discovering a little more about this every single day rather than having it all served to him at once.  
  
Link sucks Rhett's bottom lip into his mouth and nibbles at it, feeling the reverberations of Rhett's responding moan. "Yeah," Link whispers right before he dives in for more. Their mouths work together so much better now, slick and easy, and Link gets a hold of Rhett's hair to tug Rhett where he wants him as he eases his tongue into his mouth.  
  
He could do this for hours, Link thinks, just kissing Rhett, just learning what he likes, what he wants. But then Rhett presses his fingers a little more firmly into Link's waist and that draws Link's attention right back to what he wants.  
  
"Wanna finger you," Link murmurs, brushing their noses together.  
  
Rhett wrinkles his brow with a rough sound. "Link, I don't-"  
  
"Charlotte said it might work," Link says softly, "remember? You don't trust your own girlfriend?"  
  
Rhett huffs and looks away, and Link doesn't hold back the instinct to leave little kisses over Rhett's cheek where it's rough with stubble. "...I just..."  
  
Link waits. He nibbles with his lips at Rhett's jawline.  
  
Rhett lets out a slow sigh, his fingers rubbing hypnotically against Link's scalp through his hair. "Listen, man, if I tell you to stop, you gotta promise me you're gonna. Don't just keep doing it 'cuz you think it'll get better."  
  
"Mm-hmm." Link rests his forehead on Rhett's temple, breathing in the scent of him, his own eyelashes fluttering from Rhett's fingers alone. "Yeah, man, you can trust me."  
  
"I know I can," Rhett murmurs before he guides Link back into a quick kiss that pairs so sweetly with the tingles that race through Link's body at his words.  
  
They transition easily from their dorm common room into their small bedroom, hands all over each other, mouths just barely kept apart, and Link feels a rush of energy through his body that he manifests in shoving Rhett onto the bed. "Whoa, man," Rhett says with a laugh as Link crawls on top of him.  
  
"I'm a man on a mission," Link says with a bright grin. His fingers feel more agile now, like they can take on any buttons and belt that Rhett can throw at him.  
  
"I can see that," Rhett replies. He lifts his hips helpfully as Link practically rips the pants off of him. "Have you wanted to do this for a while or something?"  
  
Link licks his lips as he slides between his legs. "Yeah," he says, almost whisper soft, because admitting it any louder is gonna make him squirm around and feel all flustered.  
  
Rhett rearranges his pillows so he can prop himself up and see better. He's not fully hard yet, but there's enough thickness and color in his dick that Link's eyes keep getting drawn to it and how just generally awesome it is. Is it weird to think of Rhett's dick as awesome? Not at all, right? That's better than thinking it's _pretty_ or something, though...though on the other hand, it kind of is, and-  
  
Link cuts off those thoughts before he starts fawning over a cock. He settles for sucking his finger into his mouth and lathing his tongue all over it, eyes on Rhett's face.  
  
Rhett visibly swallows hard, hands restless and jittery by his sides. "So, uh, have you done this before?"  
  
Link shakes his head with a hum in the negative, eyes wide. How hard can it be? He's fingered someone's vagina before - lots of someones, really - so the only real difference is that he's gotta provide the slickness himself, right?  
  
Rhett bites his bottom lip. He's nervous. Link can feel it rolling off of him. "Just, uh-"  
  
"C'mon, man," Link says as he pulls his finger out of his mouth. "Will you just relax? This is supposed to be fun."  
  
"Oh, yeah, that's real relaxing," Rhett says dryly. "Having somebody tell you you're being a scaredy cat."  
  
"I didn't say that."  
  
"You implied it, though!"  
  
"Hey," Link says softly. He presses three light kisses to Rhett's thigh and watches Rhett's gaze soften in turn. "I'm gonna be real careful, okay? And if you don't like it, then I'll stop. We can do other stuff. Got it?"  
  
Rhett nods immediately, no hesitation. "Yeah, okay."  
  
"You trust me?" Link asks. It's only a little bit of a selfish question.  
  
"Yeah." Rhett locks eyes with him. "I trust you with my life, Link."  
  
"With your life and your asshole," Link says with a grin, and that at least makes Rhett laugh, makes him relax a little more, so that when Link starts rubbing his finger over the puckered skin of his hole Rhett's breath catches rather than him trying to pull away.  
  
There's silence for a few seconds only broken by Rhett's shaky breathing before Rhett clears his throat. "Can you, uh, can you do a little more, maybe-"  
  
"Yeah." Link slicks his finger up even further, tasting already something odd and new on his tongue. Fortunately doesn't make him gag this time. He brings his finger back and rubs gently, trying to tell himself to see if Rhett's body responds, if it's like rubbing a clit or something else. "How's that feel?"  
  
Rhett breathes a nervous little laugh. "It's, it's not bad."  
  
"Yeah?" Link grins widely. He flicks his eyes from Rhett's face down to his finger, watching the tiny fluctuations of Rhett's muscles. "You want more?"  
  
"M-maybe."  
  
Link gives one last thick coating of his own spit on his finger before he gently pushes just a centimeter inside of Rhett.  
  
Rhett immediately tenses, air coming to a dead stop, and Link looks up at him. He presses a few kisses to Rhett's skin, not moving until Rhett's muscles relax around the tip of Link's finger, until Rhett's eyes open and focus on Link again. "O-okay."  
  
"Okay," Link murmurs back in solidarity, and he pushes forward a little more.  
  
That's all it is for a few seconds, Rhett tensing, then relaxing, then Link easing in further. It's a careful process. Link likes to think that he's doing a damn good job, really, that he isn't being rough or violent in any way.  
  
It's only when Link starts to gently move his finger in and out of Rhett, tiny little thrusts, that Rhett's breath shifts into something a little rougher. "That good?" Link asks.  
  
"I-I don't know," Rhett says.  
  
Link is curious. He wants to see more, wants to watch how Rhett reacts to everything Link does to him. He eases his finger out of Rhett nice and slow, slicks up two fingers together, and rocks them inside of Rhett.  
  
Rhett immediately jolts backward with a sharp sound, hand flying between his legs. "Oww, goddammit!"  
  
"Sorry, sorry," Link's immediately saying. He comes up onto his knees with wide eyes, hands held up in placation, and watches Rhett grab at his own ass with a wince. "Sorry, I just, I thought-"  
  
"Too fast, man!" Rhett snaps with a scowl up at him.  
  
"Sorry," Link says again because that's all he can say. There's a weird disconnect there, knowing that he can finger a vagina so easily, that every time he's slid his fingers inside of one that it opened and welcomed him without hesitation. "Fuck, dude, I-I'm so-"  
  
"Goddammit." Rhett rolls onto his side and buries his face in his pillow and gives one long muffled whine before he lifts his head and sighs. "It's fine, dude, just, just sore. Goddamn."  
  
Half of Link feels pulled toward Rhett like a tidal change and the other is trying to guide him out of bed, out of the room, out of the dorm, so Rhett can't see just how tight Link's throat is right now. He stands there on his knees, feeling the mattress shake a little, not realizing that it's his own body that's trembling, not Rhett's.  
  
Rhett gives him a look, rough and sullen, before he holds out a hand. "Dude, if you're gonna try and rip my ass open, you might as well gimme a cuddle after."  
  
Link feels like his body is being squished between two giant stones. He forgets for a moment how his body works, has to wait for Rhett to grab his wrist and tug him down against his chest instead.  
  
"...you okay, man?" Rhett asks.  
  
"I fucked up," Link answers helpfully.  
  
Rhett sighs. "Nah, you just went a little fast, man, it's okay."  
  
"I wasn't thinking," Link says, muffled against Rhett's shirt. "I'm sorry."  
  
"I know." Rhett tucks his arms around Link, and the tightness of Rhett's arms, strong and fit, is enough to squeeze some air out of Link, to bleed some of the pressure out of him. "Hey, listen, you just didn't know. It's all right. I should've warned you to go a little slower. We should've talked about it more."  
  
Link huffs. "Dammit, now you're never gonna let me fuck you."  
  
"That is a bald faced lie," Rhett says with a laugh. "No, you're absolutely gonna fuck me, man."  
  
"But what if I do it wrong? The, the fingering stuff?"  
  
"Then I'll finger myself," Rhett replies. "And I'll make you sit there and watch while you touch yourself."  
  
Link's mind goes a little fuzzy at that, images bright and vibrant in his mind's eye. "...damn, brother."  
  
Rhett chuckles again. He kisses the top of Link's head, fleeting and quick, and an explosion of tingles races through Link's entire body. "You ready for me to try you?"  
  
"You still wanna?" Link asks, surprised.  
  
"Well, I don't gotta," Rhett says. "Like, listen, I know what Charlotte said, but I'm pretty sure this is just a bad idea all things considered-"  
  
"No, no, I want," Link stammers. He rolls onto his back and immediately gets his hands on his shorts, tugging them down. "I want you to, please."  
  
Rhett sighs. "You sure, man?"  
  
"So sure." Link wraps his hand around his own cock and gives it a few tugs. "Look, look how sure I am."  
  
Rhett's eyes trail over Link's cock, how it quickly responds, and he laughs in that dark, rough way that makes Link buck up into his own hand. "I dunno, man," Rhett drawls. He reaches down and slides his hand around the base of Link's shaft, slowly tugs upward until Link's hand drops away, until Link shivers and gasps. "Lemme check it out for myself."  
  
It's the first time Rhett's got his hand around Link's cock. Goddamn. Link tips his head back against the pillow with a whimper, eyes closing, brow bunching up, and Rhett touches him so softly and smoothly like he's never thought about anything better than teasing Link up like this. Like he'd be satisfied just doing this for ages. And that's before Rhett touches his lips to Link's neck. Link's pulse flutters right under Rhett's mouth, and Link doesn't mean to whisper "Don't stop" but here he is, needy, wanting, and Rhett hums in placation.  
  
"Thought you wanted me to finger you," Rhett murmurs just before he nibbles at Link's skin.  
  
Link gasps, twisting in the sheets. "God, just, can't you do both?"  
  
"Nah." Rhett grins against his neck. "You gotta choose."  
  
Link slams a fist down on the mattress with a frustrated cry, then puts his hands on Rhett's shoulders and shoves him downward. "Fuck me with your fingers, dude, c'mon."  
  
"Yessir."  
  
Link swears he almost comes right then and there.  
  
Rhett pulls Link's shorts further down, tosses them across the room, and Link only has a second to be miffed at that, how it lands square in the middle of their nice and clean floor, before Rhett hooks Link's legs over his shoulders. "Now, let's see here..."  
  
"What're you doing?" Link asks with a nervous laugh. "You need a microscope or something to find it?"  
  
"Nah," Rhett says. He tilts his head and squints. "Just trying to think of the best way to go about this."  
  
Link blinks. "I mean, pretty easy. Slick it up and stick it in."  
  
"Wasn't slick enough." Rhett looks up and the second their eyes meet Link forgets how to breathe. "D'you trust me, brother?"  
  
"Trust you with my life," Link parrots back, feeling a little breathless.  
  
Rhett grins at him, eyes lazy and warm, before he ducks his head.  
  
"Holy-" Link bucks his hips as a tongue drags over his hole. "Wait, wait, don't, that's-"  
  
"Shh." Rhett spreads Link further, exposing him, making a swell of tight embarrassment crest in Link's chest. "Let me."  
  
Link bites into his fist, squeezing his eyes shut as tight as he can, but that makes it worse somehow, not being able to see Rhett, just intensifies the drag of his soft, velvety tongue until Link is choking. There's slow and smooth laps, like Link has a pussy, like Rhett is eating him out or something, and Link whimpers and digs his teeth into his skin so hard that he nearly draws blood.  
  
Like a clit, he decides, this, yeah, that's absolutely like a clit, it has to be.  
  
Link can feel his cock twitching against his stomach, can feel the heat of his precum spreading onto his skin, and he fights not to cry out as Rhett doubles his efforts. Rhett gives a questioning hum. Yeah, like Link's even capable of fucking articulating something right now, Jesus.  
  
"That good?" Rhett asks. His tone is so warm, so treacley. It's like fresh toffee. "Link?"  
  
Link gurgles something wordless but manages a thumbs up, and Rhett laughs before he puts his tongue back to work.  
  
Link is absolutely beside himself. He reaches blindly behind him, gets his hand around the wooden pillar of the bunk bed, and squeezes as hard as he can. That gives him a visceral image - Rhett tying him there, making sure Link can't move a muscle - and Link whimpers like a newborn puppy. He can practically feel his lips trembling.  
  
Rhett pulls back just long enough for Link to catch his breath, for Link to hear how he's making the most pathetic noises, like little cries. "You still with me?" Rhett asks.  
  
"Fucking," Link manages, then has to pause to make another rough sound as he rubs at his face. "What the fuck?"  
  
"Link?" Rhett sounds alarmed and Link feels almost mad at himself for making Rhett so panicked.  
  
Link gestures helplessly downward, eyes still squeezed shut, breaths still catching. "How is that even fucking..." He sucks in a sharp breath. "Like, blowjobs I understand, but, but _that?_ How is that, why does, it's so..."  
  
One of Rhett's huge, warm hands rubs soothingly over Link's tummy, and it feels like Link is slowly being pulled back to the earth's surface from the stratosphere. "You want me to stop?" Rhett asks.  
  
Link honestly doesn't know how to respond. He lays there for long seconds, waiting for Rhett to prompt him, but Rhett stays quiet, lets Link think, and when Link finally says "I feel like I'll die if you keep going" Rhett doesn't even laugh.  
  
"Stop or go?" Rhett asks.  
  
Link is afraid of death, but he feels like if he had to pick a way to go, he knows what it'll be now. "Go," he chokes out.  
  
"All right, baby," Rhett murmurs.  
  
Link is absolutely not going to cry just from a dude tonguing his ass and calling him pet names.  
  
Rhett's tongue is back again, dragging wave after wave of agony twisted around pleasure out of Link's veins, but, but there's something else too, a firmer pressure against his hole, and Link's eyelashes flutter as he gasps. There's a slow, almost hypnotic rub against his sensitive skin paired with the softer tease around it, and then when Rhett finally presses inside Link arches his back with a gasp that sucks near all the oxygen out of the air.  
  
"Link?" Rhett asks.  
  
Link is beyond words. He keeps trying to suck in more air, his heart pounding, his fingers shaking against the sheets. It's only when he feels lightheaded that he lets all the air out and slowly pushes his hips downward.  
  
"Hey, calm down," Rhett says, grabbing Link's hip, keeping him from bearing down on his finger.  
  
"Fuck you," Link says as succinctly as he can. "Fuck me."  
  
"You're gonna hurt yourself, brother," Rhett reasons.  
  
Link opens his eyes, sees Rhett through a weird wet blurriness, and scowls at him. "If you don't fucking-"  
  
"Link!"  
  
Link pries Rhett's hand off of his hip and rocks his hips down with a sharp cry.  
  
It's not just the feel of something pressing inside of him for the first time. It's not just how Rhett immediately gets his tongue back on Link's skin, as if to soothe it. It's not just Link getting a power high from using Rhett's hand like a tool. No, it's the burn. It's the bite of pain that ripples through him. It's an ache that digs deep inside of him, that whispers to him that he's alive.  
  
"More," Link whispers.  
  
"No," Rhett says.  
  
"Rhett, I swear to fucking God, I am going to beat the hell out of you if you don't give me another finger right now."  
  
Rhett breathes a laugh but it shakes a little around the edges, tinged with nerves. "I'd like to see you try." But there's the sound of a mouth, of a tongue, the feel of something dripping down Link's skin from just under his balls straight down the sensitive skin of his asshole, and then there's another blunt pressure that makes him feel like the hair is standing up on the back of his neck. "You sure, Link? You're not gonna hate me if it hurts?"  
  
"Oh, it hurts," Link whispers. "God, it's fucking perfect, do it."  
  
Rhett doesn't reply, but he does start to press another finger inside of Link.  
  
Link twists a little in the sheets with a cry, arching his back at the red alarm of the pain. He thinks for a second that he's maybe torn something, but no, it's, no, he can't have, can he, just, just-  
  
"I need you to tell me you're okay," Rhett says quietly.  
  
"I'm amazing," Link says, but his tone is choked, and he realizes that there's tears sticking to his eyelashes. "C'mon, c'mon, fuck me."  
  
"Link-"  
  
"Fucking fuck me, Rhett!"  
  
Rhett eases his fingers back, then pushes them inside of Link nice and deep, and fuck, it feels like he's pushing them a whole foot inside of Link, a whole yard, feels, feels like Link is splitting in half.  
  
"Oh God," Link moans. He pulls at his own hair and somehow that keeps him focused, pairs with the pain inside of him like a fine wine. It's like grabbing an electric fence. It's like slicing his skin open to make a blood vow. It's like digging his fingers into a rusty gate as he lofts it when he's running like hell from the farmer that caught them trying to tip cows.  
  
He's so fucking alive right now.  
  
"Want your cock," Link growls. "Want it right now."  
  
"I'm not fucking putting my cock inside you, Neal."  
  
Link grits his teeth and glares down at Rhett. "Fucking put-"  
  
Rhett raises up over Link, planting his free hand on Link's chest, thudding him back down onto the mattress with a glare of his own, holding him there with such pressure that Link feels the air get crushed out of him. "Now listen, you lay there and you take what I fucking give you, do you understand me, Neal?"  
  
Link stares up at him, feeling something fuzzy get stretched over his brain, thick like cotton, his mouth hanging open.  
  
"You tryin'a tell me my fingers ain't good enough for you?" Rhett asks, his voice sharp, his words slurred.  
  
Link shudders under his hand, under the ache inside of him. "N-no," Link stammers.  
  
"Then you lay there and you let me take care of you, you understand?"  
  
Link bucks nearly his entire body, feels how quickly Rhett compensates by pressing harder on his chest, and Link has the desperate thought that he wants Rhett's fingers to bruise. "Yeah, yeah, I-I-" Link cuts off in a cry when Rhett scissors his fingers open inside of him. "Oh fuck, Rhett!"  
  
"Yeah, c'mon, baby," Rhett says in some weird mix of a growl and a purr that feels practically palpable on Link's skin. "C'mon, c'mon."  
  
It's a different game then, suddenly, Link feeling like his hold on the present is tenuous, feeling Rhett suddenly start pounding his fingers inside of Link hard enough that the pain twists together with something he can't describe, something beyond pleasure, something that makes his joints shimmer and his blood shine. And his mind, it can just, it can go offline, Link doesn't need it. He doesn't have to worry about fucking up again, about hurting Rhett, about ruining whatever this fucking thing is, because Rhett's got it, he's got it under control, it's okay, it's good, it's _great._  
  
Link doesn't even register Rhett's other hand around his cock, doesn't register the words that Rhett is cooing against his ear, doesn't register anything but the swell of sensation in his body, rising and cresting and bubbling higher and higher until Link's filled to the brim, until if he gets any deeper in it he'll drown.  
  
He babbles, he can feel the sensation of shaping sounds, but there's no words, just air, just vibration, just desperation bordering on fear, because what happens if he lets go, what happens if he falls, what happens if he gives up the last of the tendrils he has wrapped around this moment, this minute, this second?  
  
In the end, he doesn't have a choice. He feels nothing but Rhett, smells nothing but Rhett, hears nothing but Rhett, and every cell in his body embraces that so utterly that Link lets himself fall.  
  
He doesn't come back in a flash. It's him slowly sifting through the sensations he feels - the cum cooling on his belly, the swelling ache between his legs, the sharp pain on his breastbone - and pairing it with the slow, warm drag of something over his collarbone. He clings to that. It's like a beacon in a swell of fog. When he becomes aware that it's Rhett's hand, that's when the jolt happens, the sharp gasp and the desperate need to be close.  
  
"Hey, hey, shh, I've got you, baby," Rhett croons as Link practically scrambles on top of him. Rhett's arms lock around Link, cradling him, keeping him safe, as Link trembles and feels his mind grappling with vertigo. "I'm here, Link, I'm right here, I've got you, I'm not going anywhere."  
  
He fell. He fell and Rhett caught him. Of course, of course, _of course._ Link closes his eyes and buries them in Rhett's neck, focuses on the firm, almost painful press of Rhett's fingers against his spine as Rhett drags his hand up and down his back.  
  
It's a long process, parting through the fog, and Link doesn't speak during it. He takes one step at a time, focusing on the heat of Rhett's chest through his shirt, on the smell of his laundry detergent, on the soft and senseless words that Rhett breathes. And when he's back, Link doesn't even realize it for a moment, not until a bone deep exhaustion presses down on him.  
  
"Holy shit," Link finally slurs.  
  
Rhett hums in question. He cups Link's cheek and lifts his head to meet his eyes. "Hey there."  
  
Link wrinkles his brow. "The hell'd you do to me?"  
  
Rhett grins, the corners of his eyes already wrinkling. They're too young for that, Link knows, but Rhett smiles all the time around Link, he practically asked for these wrinkles. "What you wanted, brother."  
  
"Wow," Link says distantly. He rests his forehead on Rhett's, then realizes how close he is and cranes down for kisses that Rhett doesn't hesitate to reciprocate. Link hums when a thought occurs to him and lifts his head. "Need to get you off."  
  
"Absolutely fucking not," Rhett says firmly. He rolls them onto their sides and wraps around Link. "Don't even think about it."  
  
"But-"  
  
"I need this right now just as much as you do," Rhett says, and when Link forces himself to listen he can hear how Rhett's tone trembles.  
  
That's okay too, then, Link thinks. He nestles in closer and focuses on Rhett's breathing, on how it slowly starts evening out.  
  
"I hurt you," Rhett murmurs.  
  
"Wanted it," Link says. Even now he shifts and feels a dull, pleasant ache deep inside of him. "Fuck, dude, so good."  
  
"I can't believe you liked that," Rhett says with another shaky laugh. "Like, seriously, man?"  
  
"Oh God," Link moans. He nuzzles into Rhett's skin. "Yeah, dude, gotta learn something about yourself every day, you know what I'm saying, you, you gotta grow, you gotta..." He trails off as Rhett pets through his hair. "So good."  
  
Rhett sighs and they sink together a little closer, if that's even possible, until they can't inhale unless the other is exhaling. "Listen, man, we, we've gotta talk before we do something like that again."  
  
"Yeah," Link says a little distantly. He trails his fingers over Rhett's back, focusing on the sensation there.  
  
"'Cuz I had no idea what I was doing, like, I've, Charlotte's shown me some stuff, but-"  
  
"Was good." Link is already thinking about next time. Could he make Rhett feel like that? How pretty would Rhett be if he gave up every ounce of control to Link? Would Rhett trust Link to catch him? Fuck, man. Link tries to run a thousand thought experiments at once in his mind even though it feels wrung out like a washcloth. What all happened felt amazing, yeah, but...man, how would it feel to be on the other side? "We'll talk 'bout it."  
  
"When?" Rhett asks.  
  
"After sleep," Link slurs.  
  
"How the hell can you sleep after that?" Rhett asks. Or Link's pretty sure he asked that, because Link drops off around the middle of the sentence, falls under a thick cloud with every awareness that he's safe in Rhett's arms.

~~

"You don't think he's the cute one?"  
  
"I have never wanted to have this discussion in my life," Rhett says as they walk into their classroom.  
  
Link grins, purposely bumping his arm against Rhett's, making him stumble a step and look down at him suspiciously. "I'm just saying, if you had to pick between Nick Carter and Brian Littrell, the choice is pretty obvious, right?"  
  
"I don't even care," Rhett says. "I have literally never cared less, man. They're not going anywhere anyway. NSync is where it's at."  
  
"You shut your mouth."  
  
"Why?" Rhett asks as he sits in his desk. "Just because you think that Chris Kirkpatrick's hair is...is..." Rhett goes silent as Link opens his backpack and carefully tugs a pillow out of it, his wrists popped, his fingers delicately handling it.  
  
Link sets the pillow in his seat, poses above it with his head craned back to make sure it's right where he wants it, and then slowly, slowly, slowly drops down inch by inch until his sore ass touches the pillow and he winces.  
  
When Link finally gets situated he lets out a shaky breath and glances up at Rhett, freezing when they lock eyes. "What?"  
  
Rhett is grinning from ear to ear, every tooth exposed.  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Nothing, man," Rhett says as he turns to face the front, his chin in his hand. "Nothing."  
  
Link scowls at his profile, eyes narrowed suspiciously, before he slowly looks at the whiteboard. Rhett's an asshole. But at least he's not saying he was right.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings for this chapter include brief implied homophobia, bareback anal sex, and felching.

Link is doing his homework when there's a knock at the door. Normally there's a little discussion between him and Rhett about who's gonna get the door, even if it's just a nonverbal lock of the eyes, but before Link can even glance up Rhett is scrambling away from his desk, barely getting his feet under him, looking more like an excited labrador puppy than anything else.  
  
Excited? No, maybe not. Rhett glances over his shoulder at Link, sitting tall and swinging his legs on his top bunk, and Link blinks when he catches a glimpse of the nerves on Rhett's face before Rhett turns away again and gets his hand on the doorknob.  
  
It's Charlotte. "Hey babe," she says.  
  
"Hey," Rhett says back, leaning down so she can peck him on the lips. "Did you-"  
  
"Yeah, yeah," she drawls dryly, reaching into her pocket. "Here's the stuff, now stop being a whiny baby about it."  
  
"Hey," Rhett repeats. He wraps his hands around the bottle and Link wrinkles his brow, squinting, trying to get a glimpse of it. "It wasn't that big a deal, c'mon."  
  
"Says the guy who asked about it literally every day on the phone," Charlotte teases. "Boo-hoo."  
  
Rhett scoffs. "Stop." He walks over to his dresser and fumbles the bottle hiding in his hands, trying to ease it into the drawer covertly, but Link finally catches a glimpse of the label.  
  
Lube. A sharp rush goes through him, each of his cells prickling with anticipation. Okay, okay, this is...all right, wow.  
  
Rhett glances at him again, not even trying to hide the nervousness in his expression this time, and Link quickly looks down at his notebook and scribbles senselessly. His head doesn't even feel like it can properly produce thoughts, just, just a series of images - Rhett's fingers slick with his own saliva, the hard expression on Rhett's face when he hovered over Link while fingering him, Rhett's skin every shade of red when he admitted that he wouldn't mind being fucked.  
  
Shit, man.  
  
"C'mon," Charlotte says, breaking Link's thoughts. "Wanna walk with you. Leaves are starting to change."  
  
"Uh." Rhett clears his throat. "Uh, yeah, lemme just..."  
  
As Rhett sits down to put on his shoes Link looks up and locks eyes with Charlotte. Charlotte grins at him. "How're you, Link?"  
  
"Doing all right, I guess," he says slowly. He still isn't sure where he stands with Charlotte anymore. He has permission to mess around with her boyfriend for the time being, but he doesn't know when that'll change. Charlotte used to be real close with Kelly Anne, but Link doesn't really know what's going on there ever since he broke up with her. Kelly Anne's never had a real mean or spiteful heart, but there's always the possibility that she could ask Charlotte to stop being nice to Link, right? For Charlotte to withdraw the messing-around privileges? "You?" he remembers to ask a little too late.  
  
"Good, doing fantastic." She stretches her arms over her head and groans when a few of her joints pop. "Looking forward to Thanksgiving break, y'know. Will be real nice. You and Rhett going home?"  
  
"Yeah, think so," Link says. He looks at Rhett, but Rhett is still avoiding any eye contact. "Been a while since we got to see anybody."  
  
"Well," Charlotte says, "if y'all don't go anywhere, I'm sticking around town for the holiday, so you can always come eat with me. Gonna have some friends over, make a big meal, all that fun stuff."  
  
The mere idea of staying on campus almost completely alone with Rhett for a week, no classes or homework to distract them, just the both of them going where they want, doing what they want, and having hours and hours together, damn, that's enough to make Link shiver a little. Sounds real nice. "Well, I dunno, we'll talk about it, right, Rhett?"  
  
Rhett looks up at him, and Link remembers with a little jolt that Charlotte's Rhett's girlfriend here, that Link don't really have a say in their plans or nothing, that Rhett and Charlotte make the plans here. "Yeah, we'll talk," Rhett says slowly, a little hesitantly.  
  
"I-I mean, we, we, uh..." Link looks for some way to backtrack, make it sound a little less like he was staking a claim on Rhett, but he can't find a real good way to do that since he absolutely _does_ have a claim on him. "...whatever."  
  
Charlotte chuckles, warm and rich, and Link looks at her quickly, waits for some accusation of, of _gayness_ or something, of it being real weird for Link to say that, but there's nothing. She just smiles at him before looking back at Rhett. "C'mon, man, you're burning daylight."  
  
"All right, all right." Rhett heaves himself out of his chair like he's eighty years old. "So pushy."  
  
"Yep." Charlotte gives Rhett a little tap on the ass before they leave, the door shutting behind them, where Link is safe to shove his notebook away and take a deep breath and stare at the drawer.  
  
There's lube in that drawer. A whole bottle of lube. They could do a lot of things with that. Very very soon, too.  
  
Ultimately, Link gets almost nothing done while Rhett and Charlotte are gone, and damn, they're gone for a long time, a couple of hours, at least. Link redoes his homework - all the scribbling he'd put on the page made it almost incomprehensible when he erased all the nonsense - but can't get any further in it. He settles for cleaning the bathroom that he, Rhett, and their two suitemates share, scrubbing every inch of it, making sure it gleams and smells clean as anything. The lightheadedness from the bleach is expected, but Link pushes through, sets to organize Rhett's side of the room again.  
  
He finally drifts to the chest of drawers when he fails to organize anything. He pulls open the drawer and plucks out the bottle of lube that's nestled in Rhett's messy, unfolded underwear. How does this stuff work? He's never played with it before. But it's unopened - he shouldn't get a little rush of possessiveness when he realizes that Rhett deliberately didn't use any of this with Charlotte, that he saved it for Link, but he gets it anyway - and Link doesn't wanna break the seal. So he reads the entire label exactly once before he puts it away again and shivers.  
  
He can't focus on reading. He can't focus on homework. He can't focus on organizing. So he finally just lays in his bed and stares at the ceiling at lets his thoughts wander. Should he jerk off? No, he's got a pretty good refractory period, but he needs to be ready in...in case Rhett wants...  
  
God, will Rhett want Link to fuck him tonight? Or will Rhett want to fuck Link? He has no idea, can't even think of how to predict it, but just knows to the core of him that it's gonna happen, that Rhett didn't wanna wait even a second more, that that's why Charlotte brought it over.  
  
So Link decides to be mean to himself. He lays in bed and gently touches himself through his shorts, just a bare tease of his fingers through the fabric as he thinks about Rhett. He runs through an encyclopedia worth of fantasies with him, more than one for every letter of the alphabet, he thinks, but he never lets himself get too handsy even when it aches.  
  
And fuck, it does ache. It aches so much that he wouldn't be surprised if his precum bleeds through his briefs and his shorts together.  
  
By the time he hears the distant sound of their front door opening Link whines and covers his eyes, trying to catch his breath for a moment. He's flushed, such a light trail of sweat beading over his brow, and he's throbbing in his shorts. He feels like Rhett could just look at him and make Link come.  
  
The door to their bedroom opens. Link swallows. He turns his head and opens his mouth to say something to Rhett.  
  
He doesn't, though. Mostly because Rhett looks like somebody shot his dog or something.  
  
"You okay, man?" Link asks, wrinkling his brow and rolling onto his side.  
  
Rhett jolts his eyes up to look at him, blinking a few times like he doesn't really realize that Link is even there. "Huh?"  
  
"You look like shit," Link says.  
  
"Oh." Rhett breathes a laugh that doesn't sound all that real. "Oh, thanks, man."  
  
"No problem." Link sits on the edge of the bed and wipes the sweat from his brow. "Everything okay back home?" he asks.  
  
"Yeah, no, everything's fine." Rhett sits down heavily on the bed beneath Link and Link cranes forward, trying to see his face. "Yeah, I'm just tired. Think I might go to bed early."  
  
That sounds like the last thing in the world that Rhett would do. "...we didn't even get dinner. Did you get something with Charlotte?"  
  
"Nah." Rhett sounds like he's not all that present in the room, like maybe this is the ghost of Rhett. "But I'm not hungry. Just gonna sleep."  
  
Link sits back on his bed, feeling all that adrenaline from slowly edging himself starting to slip away. Oh. Okay. "...can I get you anything?" he asks. "When I go to the dining hall?"  
  
"Nah," Rhett says again. "Nah, just be real quiet when you get back."  
  
"Okay." Link slides off his bed and catches himself on the floor with a little grunt. He looks at Rhett as Rhett shrugs off his shirt and lays in bed in just his jeans and his... "You gonna take your shoes off, man?"  
  
Rhett blinks at him. He looks down. "Oh." He kicks them off. "Thanks."  
  
"No problem." The last thing Link wants to do is leave Rhett right now when something's clearly wrong, when it might even be something that Link did, for all he knows, but he also knows that it's damn hard for Rhett to fall asleep, that if Link's in the room with him it'll take even longer, so Link hesitates only a second longer before he swallows hard and heads for the door. "Hope you feel better when you wake up," he says.  
  
"Thanks, man," Rhett murmurs. Link turns around at the door to see him one more time before he flicks the lights off and leaves.  
  
Well, that puts a damper on Link's plans for the night, then.  
  
  
~~  
  
  
Link's not gonna be the first one to bring it up now, that's for sure. He goes through a good few days staring at Rhett's underwear drawer, waiting for Rhett to make a move toward it, to say anything at all, but nothing happens. Nothing happens but Rhett staying out of the dorm more and more without telling Link where he is. And that's...listen, it's not offensive, but it does make Link mad. Link can't get a hold of him, after all. What if something happened to Rhett and Link didn't know about it? That's just rude to a best friend.  
  
It's not that Link feels entitled to it, it's just...it's just rude, and they're both supposed to be Southern gentlemen, and Rhett's doing a real bad job of it.  
  
Link's honest to God startled when on Friday night, after Link grabbed some food off campus with a couple of classmates since Rhett was nowhere to be found, Rhett comes wandering into their bedroom. "Well, lookie what the cat dragged in," Link teases. Tries to tease, rather, because he can practically feel the sarcasm dripping off his tone, bitter and rough. He slides to the edge of his own bed and dangles his feet off the side. "Thought you might've just died, man. What, you only in here to sleep now? You got a secret project?"  
  
Rhett lingers on the other side of the room without speaking. He leans over his chest of drawers, hands firm on the surface, head ducked so that Link can only see the breadth of his shoulders and the shape of his triceps.  
  
"...Rhett?" Link asks. "You okay, man?"  
  
There's another second or two. And then Rhett leans over to lock the door. Rhett turns around, eyes immediately on Link, warm and intense, and Link opens and closes his mouth like a fish as Rhett's long legs carry him across the room. The beds are set up in such a way that when Rhett steps between Link's legs they're eye to eye with each other, a position that Link is so unused to that he barely realizes what's happening until Rhett's leaning their chests together, pushing Link back a few inches, and mouthing at Link's neck.  
  
"Oh-" Link sucks in a shaky breath, his fingers kneading at the bedsheet, and he snaps a hand out to grab Rhett's shoulder when Rhett pushes forward another inch. "Rhett, you-"  
  
"D'you wanna fuck?" Rhett asks against his neck.  
  
Link shudders, nails digging into Rhett's shirt. Rhett's voice is already low and thick, warm and rough, like he's been thinking about this real hard, like he's already been fucking into Link for hours and has the husky voice to show for it. "Oh God," Link murmurs with an almost brittle voice that's shaking harder than he wants it to from the sudden rush of surprise and arousal.  
  
Rhett wraps his hands around Link's hips and drags Link forward, pressing Link's crotch against Rhett's stomach. "C'mon, how 'bout it, man?" Rhett asks. His drawl's in full effect right now, dripping with twang, and it makes Link squeeze his thighs around Rhett's sides with a little sound that he doesn't mean to make. "How long we been dancing around it now? You want my cock inside you, brother?"  
  
"Jesus." Link runs his other hand over Rhett's short, prickly hair, nails scratching into his scalp. He holds Rhett at his neck. Isn't expecting Rhett to respond so quickly, growling against Link's skin and digging his teeth in, but the jolt of pain makes Link buck his hips. "Holy shit, Rhett, please-"  
  
"Please what?" Rhett asks. His fingers ease under Link's hem and his short nails press into Link's skin. Fuck, the pain is so sweet in his veins, like a flower opening up inside of him, bright and red and desperate.  
  
"Yeah, want, want you to fuck me." Link moans sharply at Rhett's answering nip. Fuck, he's gonna be marked up all up and down his neck. "Wanted it for weeks, man, give it to me."  
  
Rhett drags Link off of his bed and Link makes a surprised sound, legs immediately locking around Rhett's hips. "Just hold tight," Rhett murmurs, and Link watches Rhett's face with huge eyes as Rhett makes his way across the room, attention focused elsewhere. Link gets set down on the chest of drawers at an angle, where Rhett can spread Link's legs enough to get the drawer open under Link's left foot, and Rhett grabs the bottle of lube. "There we go."  
  
"Where're we doing this?" Link asks more breathlessly than he'd like. He's already situated here, for example, or, or there's the bean bag chair, that might be fun, or-  
  
"I'm taking you to my bed, man," Rhett says. "What kind of man do you think I am?"  
  
Link doesn't mean to whine as he wraps his arms a little tighter around Rhett, feeling Rhett scoop him up again. There's something almost too sweet about that, imagining Rhett pressing inside of him for the first time in Rhett's bed, and Link gives himself only a second to bury his face in Rhett's neck before he starts laying a line of kisses along it.  
  
Rhett doesn't just toss Link on his bed and start stripping off his clothes. No, he gently lays him down, pressing their bodies together, guiding Link in for a kiss. Link wants to attach himself to Rhett. He doesn't wanna let him go. He wraps every one of his limbs around Rhett's strong, firm body and makes soft noises against Rhett's mouth as they kiss, their tongues twisting together.  
  
Fuck, it's happening, it's finally fucking happening. Link's heart flutters in his chest, arrhythmic, desperate. He knows the door is locked but he suddenly has the panicked thought that one of their suitemates might need something, that they don't have a lot of time, and Link makes a sharp sound, pushes Rhett back an inch so Link can start pulling Rhett's shirt off.  
  
"Slow down, baby," Rhett murmurs. "We got all night, don't we?"  
  
Link can't breathe right when Rhett talks to him like that, looks at him like that. Rhett's always been smiling when they messed around, sometimes even joking, but right now he's looking at Link as intensely as anything, like he's trying to memorize his face. "All night?" Link asks without meaning to.  
  
"Yeah," Rhett says. He thumbs over Link's cheek.  
  
Link shivers, eyes dropping to Rhett's mouth, trying to hide how he's gasping just from a little tickle of Rhett's finger on his skin. "What about Charlotte, man, you don't got plans tonight?"  
  
"Just you and me, brother."  
  
Rhett kisses him again, soft and sweet, lingering, and Link feels something tighten in his chest. Almost feels like his eyes are burning. No, he's not gonna go down that route, not tonight. Link whimpers against Rhett's mouth for only a second before he rolls them over and looks down at Rhett from above him.  
  
Link doesn't think he's ever been looked at like Rhett is looking at him right now. Rhett's eyes are wide. They're so focused on him. They're pinned right on Link's eyes, like he's trying to say something telepathically, but no matter how much Link listens, he can't hear nothing.  
  
They've gotta make their own music, then. Link grabs the lube off the mattress and rips the seal off of it, dropping the discarded plastic to the floor. "Get my clothes off, man, c'mon."  
  
Rhett reaches for him and Link lets him. "Not my fault you got on top of me. I had plans, y'know. I had a method."  
  
"Your method's too slow," Link teases. He lets Rhett peel his shirt off and his shorts too.  
  
Rhett slows for a moment. "...where's your underwear, dude?"  
  
"Don't got any on," Link says.  
  
"I see that." Rhett scoffs. "Why're you not wearing any?"  
  
"'Cuz I wanted you to fuck me faster," Link replies. Rhett stares up at him, stunned, and Link grins at him and winks as he gets the lube open and looks at him. "...how the hell does this work?"  
  
"You just..." Rhett reaches up and presses the top of the bottle against Link's fingers, begins rubbing it there, and Link jolts a little at the clear smear on the tips of his fingers. "You don't need a lot, man, this stuff's got staying power."  
  
"Huh." Link rubs his fingers together. It's almost alarming how slick it feels, so different from spit and any other wetness he's ever encountered during sex. He reaches behind him, arching his back to make it easier, and rubs his finger over his asshole. "Oh. _Oh._ "  
  
"You see?" Rhett asks dryly.  
  
"Yeah, wow, that feels real useful." Link shifts a little more to experimentally push the tip of his finger inside of himself, but he gets an eyeful of Rhett hungrily looking him over from top to bottom. "Like something you see, baby?"  
  
Rhett growls low in his chest and bites his bottom lip. "You're real fucking hot."  
  
"Yeah?" Link grins from ear to ear. He gives a slow, smooth, full body roll, hips to shoulder. "You think I'm hot now. Wait 'til you're fucking me."  
  
"You gonna ride me?" Rhett asks. He squeezes Link's hips and presses his thumbs along the ridge of Link's hipbones.  
  
"Hell yeah. Gonna ride the shit out of you."  
  
Link gets one of Rhett's hands in his and smears what's probably an excessive amount of lube on his fingers. "Dude, wait-"  
  
"Nah." Link slides Rhett's hand between his legs, arching his back again. "Waited long enough. You wanna put your dick in me or not?"  
  
Rhett finally laughs, eyes sparkling, as he eases a finger inside of Link. "Fuck yeah."  
  
It's different, Rhett's finger inside of him instead of Link's. It feels like it lights something on fire inside of him, like Rhett's a different part of a circuit than Link and they're coming together for the first time. He doesn't know how to explain it. Just knows that he wants more, more, _more._  
  
"Please," Link moans.  
  
"Wanna go slow, baby," Rhett says.  
  
"You kidding me?" Link frowns down at him and grabs Rhett's middle finger, curving it so it's flush against his index finger, then starts rocking down on both of them. "I've had almost fifteen years of foreplay, man, don't tell me we gotta go slow."  
  
There's silence then, thick as fog, and Link works his hips so he can fuck himself on Rhett's fingers, appreciate the sharpness of the stretch rather than the unspoken words between them. But lo and behold, Rhett actually shocks Link by opening his mouth and asking something rather than leaving it silent. "How long you think you wanted me?"  
  
Link closes his eyes and takes in a shaky breath. "God." He runs his mind back as far as he can, images flying past him at a blisteringly fast pace. "Used to get real scared about the first time I'd kiss a girl. Thought about asking you to practice."  
  
"Bullshit," Rhett says, followed immediately by "When?"  
  
"Twelve?" Link asks. "Then, uh. Then I went to see my dad for one of his weekends, heard him say some stuff about these two old guys that lived near him, and I..." Silence. Link swallows hard. "Twelve. I was twelve."  
  
Rhett's quiet for a minute, but he jostles Link as he sits up and wraps his other arm around him. "Used to watch you sleep when we were kids."  
  
"Fuck you," Link says, forcing a breathy laugh because his head feels real weird and keeps trying to drag him somewhere he don't wanna go, somewhere in the past that he's trying so damn hard to leave behind. "You did not."  
  
"I did." Rhett noses at Link's neck. There's that current running between them again, right between their bare chests, and Link clings to it, lets himself be grounded so solidly by it. He keeps up the slow rock of his hips, feels how he adjusts to Rhett's fingers until there's no soreness to the stretch. "Couldn't sleep all that easy sometimes when you'd stay over. Used to watch you sleep instead. Thought for a while that maybe I could just figure out how you fell asleep so fast by watching you. Then I got distracted by how pretty you looked. Used to wonder if I was in any of your dreams."  
  
Link lets out a shaky sigh. He presses a string of kisses over Rhett's forehead without even knowing why. "Another finger, man?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
They rock together like that without a word for long seconds, Link digging his fingers into Rhett's back, Rhett sucking gently at Link's skin. Rhett's three fingers come up to meet Link, and every time Link sinks down far enough to feel Rhett's knuckles a little jolt goes off in his gut.  
  
Okay, he sees why Rhett likes going slow now. He fucking gets it. No reason to tell Rhett that, though.  
  
"Gonna fuck you real good, baby," Rhett murmurs.  
  
"Yeah," Link whispers back. He can feel his cock leaving a slick trail of precum over Rhett's belly every time that they move, and it almost makes him whimper, that low burn of pressure, of sensation. "Want you so fucking bad."  
  
"You can have me," Rhett replies. "I'll fuck you every night."  
  
Link whimpers and presses closer to Rhett, rolling his hips against his stomach again. "God, please."  
  
"When're you gonna fuck me, then?" Rhett asks teasingly.  
  
Link laughs again but it feels easier now, more natural. "Every morning."  
  
"Sounds like a good plan."  
  
Link grins and opens his eyes as he pushes Rhett back down onto the bed. "Well, we gotta start sometime."  
  
As Link works Rhett's jeans open and starts tugging them down, Rhett makes an alarmed sound. "Wait, gotta get a condom."  
  
"No you don't," Link says, calm as anything.  
  
Rhett goes quiet for a long second. "You...you wanna fuck without a condom?"  
  
"Yeah," Link says. He doesn't look at Rhett's face.  
  
"You sure?" Rhett takes a second. "Oh, you want me to pull out when I-"  
  
"Nah," Link interrupts. "No, you, uh, you can just, you can keep fucking me."  
  
Rhett makes a low choked noise. "You want me to come inside you?"  
  
Link finally peeks up at him, cheeks flushed, eyes wide. "...yeah."  
  
Rhett gapes at him, then sucks in a sharp breath when Link gets a slick hand around his cock. "Holy _shit._ "  
  
"That okay?" Link asks as he slowly pumps his hand over Rhett's pretty dick. "If I want you to do that?"  
  
"You're gonna get all messy, though," Rhett says in a rough voice. He gives little movements of his hips, like he's trying to hide them so Link doesn't see how Rhett wants to fuck up into his hand. "You're gonna have my cum dripping out of you, man."  
  
Link shivers, biting his bottom lip. "If you don't wanna get your bed messy, then you can just lick it up, can't you?"  
  
A laugh bursts out of Rhett. "You want me to eat my own cum out of your ass?"  
  
Link squeezes Rhett's cock and thumbs over the head. "Maybe I'll make you."  
  
Rhett stays quiet at that, and when Link looks back down at him he sees how Rhett is staring at him with huge eyes. "I..."  
  
Link tilts his head to the side. He flashes him a lazy smile. "I think you like it when I tell you to do things," he murmurs.  
  
Rhett grunts and tips his head back, a shaky breath leaving him. "Shut up."  
  
"Nah." Link comes up on his knees and cranes his neck to try and see behind him. He rubs the head of Rhett's cock between his cheeks. "Can you...?"  
  
Rhett reaches and pulls Link's cheeks open, exposing him to the cool air, and Link shivers as he moves his hand carefully, feeling Rhett's cock drag over his skin, until Link can finally press the swell of the head inside of him. "Fuck," Rhett growls.  
  
"Oh my God." Link gasps and throws his head back, eyes shut, thighs trembling. "Oh. Oh, okay." So fucking different from fingers. So fucking different from a tongue. Just. Just so...Jesus, he's into this. Link can feel his hard cock ache, can feel how every muscle inside of him burns in the sweetest way.  
  
Link doesn't mean to clench around Rhett, but Rhett grunts anyway, takes a few hard pants. "Careful, man," Rhett says.  
  
"Sorry." Link feels tingles starting to spread down his spine as he takes Rhett deeper and deeper inside of him, but he forces himself to focus on the present. "That hurt you, man?"  
  
"No," Rhett presses. "No, fucking, was fucking great, just..." He gasps. "Don't hurt yourself."  
  
"I like when it hurts," Link murmurs without even realizing he's saying it. "Your cock feels fucking amazing, Rhett."  
  
"Yeah?" Rhett digs his nails into Link's skin as he drags his fingers up Link's back from his ass. "Does it stretch you out real good, baby?"  
  
"Is it supposed to be that thick?" Link asks with a little laugh. "Like, Jesus, Rhett, that's just unfair."  
  
Rhett doesn't respond, and Link doesn't try to make him. He focuses on the sensation, the ache inside of him, the way little sparks shoot off every time Rhett scratches him a little harder. Fuck, he feels a little like an animal right now. He wants to take everything he can get, wants to make Rhett moan under him, wants to make Rhett beg for more.  
  
He loves this. Loves every bit of it. Goddamn.  
  
Link can feel the sweat that starts spreading across Rhett's chest under his fingers, and Link can't help but grin and focus on it, focus on how he's making Rhett feel. Rhett keeps making those gorgeous little rough noises under him, vibrating clean through his chest. It's fucking wonderful.  
  
Rhett's eyes are shut, though. And Link likes being looked at.  
  
Link reaches up above him, tucking his fingers in the wires of his mattress frame. "Baby," he says.  
  
Rhett moans. "Yeah?"  
  
"Look at me," he says.  
  
As Rhett opens his eyes he moans sharply, brow furrowing, and Link smiles down at him. He rolls his hips like a dancer, rolls his whole body, rotates his hips in a slow circle, and every time he does he hears Rhett gasp. "Holy shit," Rhett murmurs.  
  
"Do I look good when I ride you?" Link asks, tilting his head to the side.  
  
"You're fucking hot as hell, Link." Rhett groans. "You feel so fucking good."  
  
"Mmm." Link feels his thighs burning with the exertion, but he couldn't give less of a shit, not if Rhett's gonna look at him like that. "You wanna fuck me harder?" he asks.  
  
Rhett looks almost pained. "God, can I?"  
  
"Want you to," Link says. He smirks. "Can't wait 'til you hold me down and fuck me on your desk."  
  
The sound that comes out of Rhett's mouth is almost wounded. He grabs Link's hips bruisingly and starts fucking up into him, and the power of his thrusts is enough to make Link gasp in surprise, to press down on the frame above him so he doesn't hit his head. "I'll fuck you anywhere you want," Rhett growls, pairing it with a rough sound that Link's pretty sure their neighbors can hear.  
  
"You wanna take me home?" Link asks. His voice shakes from how Rhett's slamming his hips up into Link, from how his cock is practically throbbing against his belly. "Wanna fuck me in your bed, huh?"  
  
"Fuck yes." Rhett pants. "Wanna fuck you on the hood of my car."  
  
"Hell yeah." He can see it now, the cool dawn air on his skin, Rhett fucking the shit out of him when there's still morning dew and fog spread over the hood. "Holy shit, Rhett-"  
  
"Wanna hear you moan for me everywhere," Rhett manages in a choked voice. "God, Link, I-I'm close."  
  
"Yeah, _yeah._ " Link looks down at him and reaches for his own cock, starting to pump it. "C'mon, Rhett, come for me."  
  
Rhett makes such a strangled sound as he bucks his hips inside of Link, and Link gasps, whines, feels, feels _something_ inside of him, and he sags forward without meaning to, fingers falling from his cock, so he can get his hands on Rhett and kiss him desperately.  
  
Feeling Rhett's rough sounds against Link's mouth are something special. Link cups his face and twists his neck so he can kiss him deeper, taste even more of him. It's incandescent. Fuck, he could live on just this alone; he doesn't even need an orgasm.  
  
Rhett, however, seems to have other plans. He rolls them over again and Link whimpers from the shift in angle, from how Rhett's belly rubs against his cock. Rhett breaks the kiss with a gasp. "Turn over."  
  
"Why?" Link asks breathlessly, taking in Rhett's glassy eyes and the sweat on his skin.  
  
"You told me to do something, didn't you?" Rhett asks.  
  
Link gapes at him until Rhett pulls out of Link, gets up on his knees, and rolls Link over himself. "Rhett, no, y-you don't have to-"  
  
"No take-backsies," Rhett teases in that sex-rough voice as he pulls Link up on his hands and knees. "I'd like it if you'd touch yourself for me."  
  
Link moans, the sound high-pitched and embarrassing, and gets a hand around his cock just as Rhett's tongue slips between his legs. Fuck, _fuck,_ okay, he, he can probably survive this, shit. Not with his head intact, not with the way Rhett seems hellbent on wiping every trace of thought from his mind, but... "Fuck," Link whimpers, shaky, high in his throat.  
  
Rhett grunts against him. He spreads Link far enough to hurt and presses the tip of his tongue inside of Link, wriggles it just enough to make Link twitch in his own hand.  
  
"Dude," Link whines, "that's, that's fucking vile, don't-"  
  
"It's not bad," Rhett breaks away to murmur before he dives in again.  
  
The sensation's almost enough to make Link cry. He buries his face in his forearm, thinking of Rhett who'll try anything once, will eat anything put in front of him, how Rhett is licking up every drop of _his own cum_ just because Link asked him to.  
  
Fucking shit, Rhett would do anything for Link, wouldn't he?  
  
Link feels a finger ease inside of him and bucks, crying out in surprise, and he swears he can _feel_ Rhett fish the cum out of his ass, can hear how Rhett sucks at his own finger with a hum before he licks at Link again.  
  
It's too much, it's too fucking much, and Link muffledly shouts into his own arm as he spills over his hand.  
  
He can distantly feel Rhett rolling Link onto his side, can feel Rhett spooning up behind him, can feel Rhett rub at his chest. He's pretty content to float here, every cell in his body tingling. He feels safe. He could do this for the rest of his life, he thinks.  
  
But eventually Rhett starts kissing over the swell of his shoulder and Link groans, forcing himself to slowly start easing back into reality.  
  
"You came on my sheets," Rhett murmurs.  
  
Link peers down, squinting. There's absolutely a broad wet spot on the sheets. "Ugh." Link wiggles back closer to Rhett to stay away from it.  
  
"Where'm I gonna sleep tonight?"  
  
"Just sleep with me," Link murmurs.  
  
Rhett chuckles, his breath tickling Link's ear. "We ain't gonna fit in the same bed, man."  
  
"We can try," Link says. "We're fitting right now just fine."  
  
"You'll roll off," Rhett replies.  
  
"Not if you hold me tight." Link pushes back.  
  
Rhett doesn't reply. There's a long moment before he drapes an arm over Link, loose around his waist, and Link takes advantage of his exhausted mind to reach down and knit their fingers together.  
  
He feels Rhett squeeze before Link drops off to sleep.  
  
  
~~  
  
  
They go get coffee with Charlotte the next morning. Rhett and Link walk there together, complaining about the nip in the air, heads ducked against the breeze. They talk about sports. Their shoulders bump every once and a while from how close they're walking.  
  
Charlotte introduces Link to the girl she brought with her, Luciana. She's a pretty thing, sparkly dark eyes and thick dark hair. Link decides pretty quickly as Luciana goes to grab them a table that he's been set up. A nice double date, huh?  
  
"Were you gonna warn me?" Link whispers to Rhett in line.  
  
"The hell're you talking about?" Rhett whispers back.  
  
"About Charlotte bringing Luciana."  
  
Rhett's eyes go a little shifty. The barista asks for his order right then and Link doesn't even notice that he doesn't get a reply, is too busy checking out Luciana from afar as Charlotte orders for both her and Luciana.  
  
They sit in a circle, Charlotte next to Rhett, Link next to Luciana, and the conversation's a pretty easy thing even with Rhett being quiet and looking like he's trying to hide himself behind his coffee cup. It's real weird. Does Rhett just not like Luciana, Link wonders. Do they have bad blood? If so, why would Charlotte bring her?  
  
Link is staring at Rhett, trying to figure out why Rhett's avoiding eye contact, when he sees movement to the side and turns his head and gets a real close view of Charlotte and Luciana kissing right there in the middle of the coffee shop.  
  
It's like time stops. While Charlotte and Luciana nuzzle their noses together with bright smiles, Link gapes at them. "Do what?" he asks without meaning to.  
  
Everyone looks at him. Charlotte blinks a few times. "Hm?"  
  
"You and..." He gestures to Luciana, pauses, then gestures to Rhett, then pauses again.  
  
Nobody says anything for a long moment, and then Charlotte snorts. "Lemme guess, he didn't tell you."  
  
"Tell me what?" Link asks distantly.  
  
"That we broke up," she says patiently. "Me and Rhett."  
  
Link feels a little dizzy suddenly. "Y-you did?"  
  
"Yeah." She blinks. "When he and I went on that walk?"  
  
When she brought the lube. When Rhett was in a state. Link stares.  
  
"And Luciana and I are seeing each other," Charlotte says very slowly, like Link isn't comprehending, which, fair point. "We met at a club a few days ago and-"  
  
"But..." Link wrinkles his brow. He turns his head. "But we..." He looks at Rhett. Rhett's eyes nearly burn through him, all intensity and heat, almost palpable on his skin. They'd slept together after...after that, after Charlotte and Rhett broke up, Rhett and Link had...  
  
Link has one thought - _was this a double date after all?_ \- but he can't bring it voice.  
  
"Anyway," Charlotte says, breaking the moment, "Luciana and I have a matinee we have to go catch, so-"  
  
"Yeah," Link says without realizing it. "Congratulations?"  
  
"You're real cute together," Rhett adds, looking at them.  
  
Luciana flashes a bright, toothy smile. "Thank you," she says.  
  
Link's not really sure what else happens, honestly. He knows the girls leave, hand in hand. He knows that Rhett throws away the garbage on the table. He knows that even though he feels like he's falling, he never actually ends up on the ground.  
  
And then Rhett's standing beside him, and Link tips his head back and blinks up at him. "You wanna go get brunch or something?" Rhett asks gruffly.  
  
Link remembers how to breathe around then. He inhales. He nods. "Brunch is good."  
  
"Yeah." Rhett holds out a hand and Link takes it, pulling himself up out of the low chair, then lets it go again. "So, uh. What'd you think of Luciana?" he asks as they head toward the door.  
  
Link feels their arms brush together. He reaches out, touches their pinkies together for a moment, feels Rhett lean into him for a breath before stepping away again as they make their way down the sidewalk. "She was all right," Link says, because that's easier than asking if Rhett wants to kiss him in front of a public coffeeshop. "She was all right."


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warnings for this chapter include a verbal confrontation and consensual choking.

It's a questionable routine that they both sink into in their dorm. Their lives still overlap. Their classes are still the same. They still share meals, share notes, share shirts. But when they shut their bedroom door behind them and lock eyes, things... _shift._  
  
They've started studying together, for example. Link never grew out of the old study-constantly-and-always-do-your-homework-early thing, and even though it's a chore to get Rhett to sit down with him and open a textbook, it's easier when they're both sitting on Rhett's bed to do it, both propped up against the wall with one of Rhett's pillows shoved behind their backs, and one of their legs overlapping where Link holds his breath and lays the back of his knee over Rhett's thigh and doesn't exhale for ten seconds until he knows for sure that Rhett isn't moving away.  
  
They used to fight over the bathroom in the mornings, but one day Link was brushing his teeth with the door cracked and Rhett made his way in without a word, wet his brush under the running tap, and started brushing beside him, their elbows touching. Link stared at Rhett hard in the mirror but Rhett never once looked at him, just...just stayed close. And that's how it goes now. Link styles his hair while Rhett scrubs his face. Rhett complains about his pimples while Link flosses. They share space. They don't question it.  
  
They also don't discuss it.  
  
That's what's starting to get to Link, really, the fact that their lives are now overlapping in even more ways than before, but...nothing's being said about it. And that means he doesn't know how long it's gonna stay like this before they fall back into their old routines.  
  
He could bring it up. But he doesn't. Because the last thing he wants to do is fuck it up.  
  
  
~~  
  
  
"Mail."  
  
Link looks up from where he's already camped on Rhett's bed, his notebook open in his lap. "Anything good?"  
  
"Dunno." Rhett tosses a couple of letters in Link's lap before he perches on the edge of his desk, long legs sticking out in front of him. Link tears into his letters and starts reading them - one's from his mom, telling him she's putting together a care package, that she still needs to know if Link's coming home for Thanksgiving, that he should call maybe more than once a month, normally guilty mom things - but it's a little questioning sound that Rhett makes that draws his eyes up.  
  
"What?" Link asks, blinking.  
  
"Nothing," Rhett says. "Cousin's getting married, that's all."  
  
"Oh." Link goes back to reading his letter. "Anybody I know?"  
  
"Nah, back in California. Mom wants me to go, though."  
  
"Fun stuff," Link says dryly.  
  
"Yeah." Rhett huffs and wanders over to his wardrobe, and Link glances up, traces his eyes down the slope of Rhett's body as he goes. "Don't think my dress shirts even really fit me anymore."  
  
Link sets his letter aside. He rolls onto his front, holding up his chin in his hands. "You can go shopping," he says. Rhett's parents are pretty well off when it comes to a level of wealth for Buies Creek. They've always had a bigger house, more cars, everything. Link's never known Rhett to need anything and not get it. Must be nice.  
  
Rhett doesn't reply right away. He tugs a dress shirt out of his wardrobe, considers it, then strips off his t-shirt.  
  
Link's memorized Rhett's body pretty well by now. He can count on one hand the number of times that they've messed around, but it feels stronger now, somehow, knowing that the line that was drawn in the sand has been scratched out, that beforehand they were just messing around for fun while Rhett was still dating a girl seriously, that now if they mess around it...it means something else. For that reason alone he probably shouldn't drink in Rhett so eagerly - the slope of his back, the tan on his skin, the way his abs are starting to soften now that he's had a few years of not playing basketball competitively - but he can't help himself, and Link's never said he wasn't hedonistic.  
  
Rhett pulls on the dress shirt and buttons it. They don't have a mirror in their room, as much as Link's mom tried to buy one for them, and Rhett turns around and quirks a brow. "How's it look?"  
  
It's missing an undershirt. The white material is so sheer that Link can see the color of Rhett's nipples, can feel a tickle on his tongue where he wants to mouth at them. "Not bad," he says. "Missing a tie."  
  
"Well, duh," Rhett says with a scoff. He starts going through his wardrobe again and Link goes back to checking him out, to studying the way that Rhett's pants fit him when the shirt billows so loosely over it. His fingers tingle. He wants to come up behind Rhett and tuck the shirt in under his waistband, fingers sliding over Rhett's hips, his ass, his crotch. Wants to hear Rhett's breath catch as Link kept his touch light and his movements slow. "...huh."  
  
Link blinks the images out of his mind. "What?"  
  
"Can't find my tie."  
  
Link chuckles. "Man, if you'd just keep everything all nice and neat when I cleaned," he drawls as he slides off of Rhett's bed, "maybe you'd be able to find something every once and a while."  
  
"My method's fine," Rhett snaps irritably, but Link's not bothered by it, just lets the familiar tone wash over him as he opens his own wardrobe and starts looking over the ties he has hanging from a single hanger. Everything in its place. "What're you doing anyway?"  
  
"Gotta see how you'd look with the full picture." Link selects a tie - a nice green, something to bring out Rhett's hair and eyes - and comes over. "Lean over."  
  
Rhett stares at him suspiciously.  
  
"Man, how'm I supposed to put this dang thing on you if you don't lean over?" Link asks.  
  
"I can do it," Rhett mumbles.  
  
"Yeah, well, you're not gonna." Link reaches up and grabs Rhett by the lapel, jerking him down an inch or two, and Rhett's eyelashes flutter distractingly. Link stares at Rhett's eyes for a second or two before he loops the tie around Rhett's neck and focuses on tying it properly on the first try.  
  
"Careful," Rhett says softly when Link tugs at the loop.  
  
Link forces a grin so that he can maybe hide his shaky fingers. "What, too tight?" Link teases. He pulls harder just to hear Rhett swear. "We used to choke each other as kids for fun, man, don't pretend you're too grown for that now."  
  
He expects Rhett to laugh, but he doesn't, and Link looks up at his eyes again. They're...fluttering. Like he can barely keep his eyes open. His lips are parted. Link tilts his head to the side and experimentally pulls even harder, and the way that Rhett's breathing suddenly gets small and stilted makes Link even more curious.  
  
"Do you like that?" Link asks on a whisper.  
  
Rhett's eyes suddenly snap back into focus and he grabs Link's hands, loosening the loop around his throat a little. "Cool it, man." But he doesn't pull away. Neither of them do. "Just...just do the tie."  
  
Another question that Rhett doesn't answer. Link could ask it again, could demand a response, but that could open the whole floodgate, going from asking if Rhett likes choking to if Rhett wanted to hold Link's hand when they got brunch together last week just on the tail end of finding out Rhett and Charlotte broke up. So he doesn't ask again. He just lets Rhett's hands hang loosely around Link's wrists as he works at the simplest knot he knows, something he can't fuck up after this many years of having to tie it for church.  
  
The air's different now. It's thicker. It's heavy. It's just like it gets every time that Rhett and Link's eyes start lingering on each other, when one of them will let their fingers graze the other, when they can both still pretend that there's not only one way that this can end.  
  
They're gonna end up in Rhett's bed. They're gonna end up naked and pressed together and gasping things against each other's mouths that they've never even considered before. Things that they've never said. Things that they'll never say again unless they're fucking like animals.  
  
Link finishes the knot. His fingers linger on the silky fabric. Rhett stays close. Link lifts his eyes and meets Rhett's gaze, hard, warm, like a desert sun beating down on him.  
  
It's inevitable when Link tugs Rhett down by the tie to kiss him.  
  
The second their lips meet Rhett squeezes Link by the elbows, holding him still, and Link can feel how Rhett presses the kiss, tries to accelerate it, tries to go a hundred miles an hour with no warning, but Link holds back. He keeps Rhett at bay. He only lets them have the sweet brush of their lips together, the faint taste of each other on their mouths. He doesn't even let their tongues meet, even though he can feel Rhett lick eagerly at Link's lips.  
  
And then Link breaks the kiss and lets the tie go and stares just for a second more before he steps away.  
  
Link feels Rhett on his heels when Link goes back toward Rhett's bed, but Link simply snags his textbook and notebook and continues toward his desk, and that's when the footsteps stop behind him. He can feel the weight of Rhett's eyes on him as Link sets the book down, sets the notebook down, and drops into his chair, every inch of his skin tingling.  
  
"...well?" Rhett asks.  
  
Link swallows hard as he flips his book open, fingers shaking on the pages, losing his place twice more and having to fight to get it back. "Well what?"  
  
Rhett scoffs. It's a quick dismissive sound, like when Rhett was licking his wounds after a girl turned him down in high school, like when Rhett came straight to Link from his talk with the coach to complain about how Rhett wasn't starting this season either. "That's it?"  
  
There's still adrenaline under his skin. Heat. Pounding blood. Link pushes it down. "Whaddya mean?"  
  
"You, you just...you kiss me and go?"  
  
It's very difficult not to look at Rhett, but somehow he manages it. "I mean, what else were you expecting?" Link asks.  
  
There's footsteps again, heavy and clunky, like Rhett's lost all trace of grace, and then Rhett's touching his shoulders. "This what you want?" Rhett asks, his voice rough with both heat and confusion, his fingers sliding down Link's chest and brushing over his sensitive nipples. "Want me to come after you, brother?"  
  
Link can feel Rhett's eyelashes brushing his neck, can feel Rhett's nails digging into Link's shirt just like Link likes, and he lets himself have one shiver before he swallows it. "I've got homework."  
  
"Then why'd you kiss me?" Rhett asks against his skin. He mouths at it, lets his teeth graze just enough to spread goosebumps all over Link. "You don't just kiss me, man, that's not all you want."  
  
Fuck, Link wants to grab Rhett by the tie and kiss him until he can rip Rhett's shirt clean off of him and leave marks all up and down his chest, but...but... "Is this all we do?" Link asks.  
  
The words shake in the air, tremulous, weak, barely there, but Rhett freezes. Link makes himself turn his head even though it means their noses brush together and remind Link of how close they are, how Link doesn't have to do this, how he can just, just keep a good thing going. But Rhett's brow is already wrinkled. He's already confused. The words are out there and Link can't suck them back in. "What do you mean, 'all we do?'" Rhett asks roughly.  
  
Bad idea, bad plan, bad everything. Link shoves his chair back and stands up. "Never mind."  
  
"No," Rhett says, fingers around Link's wrist, whipping him back around. "No, you're not fucking running, you're gonna tell me what the hell you mean, 'all we do?'"  
  
Rhett's eyes are on fire, but not in the way that Link likes, and Link could cower under it, under the realization that he's the one that pissed off Rhett, that Rhett could put everything to a stop right now, from fucking to friendship. Or Link could get mad too, because that's what they do. "Don't you..." Link rips his wrist out of Rhett's grasp and takes a step back, but Rhett doesn't come after him. "Don't you tell me what I can and can't do, man, I'm not your girlfriend."  
  
Rhett flinches. "What, you expect me to read your mind or something?"  
  
"I don't wanna talk about it," Link snaps. "I want you to forget it."  
  
"Yeah? That what you want?" Rhett leans down an inch, eyes smoldering. "Too goddamn bad. What'd you mean? You think there's something else going on here?"  
  
Link squares his jaw. He grits his teeth. He doesn't look away.  
  
"Whaddya want, Link, flowers? You want me to bring you candy? You want a singing teddy bear with a big ol' heart on it?" Rhett snaps.  
  
Something aches deep inside of Link and he drags in a sharp breath, not knowing how to give it words.  
  
"'Cuz as far as I know," Rhett says, words dripping with acid, "you just wanted to mess around with me, didn't you? You just asked Little Miss Kelly Anne if you could roll around in bed with Rhett McLaughlin and play with his dick a little like it was a shirt you wanted to try on."  
  
"I didn't say that," Link bites.  
  
"No? What'd you say, then?"  
  
Link goes silent. He looks away, grinding his teeth together.  
  
"What'd you fucking _say,_ Neal?" Rhett asks louder, too loud, _too loud._  
  
Link inhales sharply, feeling his eyes sting, feeling his legs ache with energy that he wants to burn off. "Look, I-I-"  
  
"And now you're gonna throw a goddamn hissy fit 'cuz I'm giving you what you wanted?" Rhett barks a laugh. "Listen to you, you begged me to fuck you a week ago, and now you don't know what the hell you want."  
  
"Goddammit," Link whispers, reaching to rake his fingers through his hair, turning away from Rhett.  
  
"Tell me what you want, Neal," Rhett snaps in a sing-songy voice, dragging it out so cruelly, like a hot poker down Link's skin. "Tell me!"  
  
"Stop putting your fucking issues on me!" Link bellows as he whips around again. His voice cracks and he can barely see Rhett through the blur of his eyes but he can't stop, he can't fucking stop. "You think you know what _you_ want? You think you got it all figured out? I don't fuck you once, just _once,_ and you start throwing a temper tantrum? Seriously?! The hell is that?!"  
  
Rhett is tensed like a brick house, arms spread, fists tight, and Link can barely look at him when he knows that he's the one that made him like that. But he doesn't respond and the floodgates are opened just like Link knew they'd be and he can't stop if Rhett's not gonna stop him.  
  
"I wanted to talk, that's it, just, I just wanted..." Link trickles off when his throat starts burning, when it gets tight, but no, he shoves past it, starts yelling again because that's all he can do. "I wanted to fucking talk about it and figure out what the hell's going on, 'cuz I don't, Rhett, I don't know, and I'm sc-" He can't say it. He can't say it, because then it'll be real. He sucks in a wet breath and tries again. "Man, I just can't stand you sometimes," he says on a whimper.  
  
Rhett wrinkles his brow. He frowns. He takes a step back.  
  
"Say something, man," Link says, voice shaking.  
  
Rhett doesn't. He just stares.  
  
This isn't a conversation. It can't be a fucking conversation if only one of them's talking. So Link turns on his heel and leaves, because that's what the Neal men are fucking good at doing.  
  
He grabs his running shoes out of the common room as he goes. He has time to bend down, get them, put a shaky hand on the doorknob that he fumbles to get open. It feels like an eternity.  
  
And it's still not long enough for Rhett to come after him.  
  
  
~~  
  
  
Link's feet are blistered and his chest is aching by the time he nearly collapses in the lobby of his dorm. The student that's manning the front desk looks up at him, but Link just sags into the couch and toes off his shoes and props his feet up on the coffee table, rubbing his eyes.  
  
He could stay down here. This is where he could sleep. He could pretend that it's not already one in the morning, that he's eaten dinner, that he doesn't have an early class. He could start a whole new life here.  
  
Unfortunately Rhett will have to eventually come through the lobby too, unless he plans to leave through their third story window to go to class.  
  
Link sighs and heaves himself up from the couch like a man five times his age.  
  
Every step he takes burns his feet, but it matches the burn in his chest, so that's okay. He climbs the stairs with his shoes loose in his hands and thudding against his leg, matching the slow beat of his heart, using it as a counter to get him higher, farther, faster, until he's standing in front of his room.  
  
The living area is dark. It's silent. Probably because people are sleeping. But his bedroom door is ajar, and Link swallows hard on his raw throat before he makes his way toward it.  
  
When he gets there, the bedroom is empty. Oh. He drops the running shoes in a pile as he tries to process this, the fact that Rhett isn't here, that he isn't in the empty bathroom, that he isn't in the whole dorm. He's gone.  
  
His things are still here, Link quickly reminds himself as he eases into the bedroom and looks around, hands shaking. Rhett didn't just pack a suitcase and go running. He has to come back.  
  
What happens when Rhett comes back?  
  
Link shrugs off his clothes and kicks the door shut behind him, left in darkness that's cut by the moonlight through the open blinds. He climbs up to his top bunk and lands on his stomach. He doesn't move.  
  
Maybe he'll just stay here forever. Maybe if he crawls under the covers he won't have to leave again. He won't have to see Rhett, speak to him, hear him, anything.  
  
Time doesn't have meaning when Link lays there, not when breathing is hard enough to do with his face half-crushed into his pillow and when his feet throb. He imagines himself getting up and treating the blisters. He imagines getting some food for his empty stomach. He doesn't actually do any of these things, but maybe if he imagines hard enough it'll work regardless.  
  
Maybe if he imagines that he apologized to Rhett, it'll happen.  
  
He's working real hard on that part when the door opens and the lights get flicked on, and Link locks eyes with Rhett before he can tell himself not to. They stare at each other without words, and Link feels like he might drown in the ache in his chest. And Rhett's clearly not gonna say anything, so Link might as well. "It's two o'clock in the fucking morning," he tries to snap, but his voice is so raw from his shouting hours before that any intimidation factor he has is gone. "Turn out the light."  
  
"As if you were sleeping." Rhett's voice is rough too. But it's different somehow. His eyes are red enough for Link to notice, and Link squints, sitting up a little on his arms as Rhett shuts the door. "You sleep like the dead, man, if you could sleep, you'd already be doing it."  
  
Link watches Rhett drag himself through the room, how he tugs his shoes off and tucks them neatly by the door, how he removes his hoodie and drapes it over the back of his desk chair. Rhett rubs his eyes and turns around to look up at him again and Link wrinkles his brow as he stares at how puffy Rhett's eyes are. "You on something?" Wouldn't be the first time.  
  
Rhett gives him an incredulous look. "Seriously?"  
  
"What?" Link asks, because he'd rather settle on this soft topic than go anywhere under the surface.  
  
Rhett stares at him just a little longer. And then he shakes his head with a sigh. "We've gotta talk, brother."  
  
Every hair on Link's body stands up and he tastes acid on his tongue. "No," he says with a laugh that's hard to fake. "No, no, we're not, nuh-uh, that's not happening."  
  
"Link," Rhett says again, and his voice is so weak and shaky that Link has to roll over.  
  
With his back turned to Rhett and his nose practically touching the wall, Link feels safe. There's no way this can go wrong. Except that the bedframe shakes and Link jolts, peering over his shoulder and seeing Rhett's head cresting the top bunk. "The hell're you doing?"  
  
"We need to talk, Link," Rhett says. His head appears another few inches up. Then it stops. Rhett takes a deep breath.  
  
"You're goddamn afraid of heights," Link says. "Quit it."  
  
"No," Rhett presses. He comes up another few inches, and his eyes are very firmly fixed on the ceiling, not on Link and _especially_ not on the floor. "No, man, I'm coming up, we're talking, and that's that."  
  
"Are you serious right now?" Link rolls over, pulled back as far to the head of the bed as he can get without bumping his head on the wall.  
  
Rhett doesn't reply. Another few inches up. His hands are shaking.  
  
"You're like ten feet tall," Link says. "How the hell are you afraid of being a foot off the ground?"  
  
"Link, if you don't shut up-"  
  
"You've never met me if you think I'm gonna do that, brother."  
  
Rhett grunts in response.  
  
It's a slow, painful process, but by the time that Rhett actually climbs onto the top bunk, hands sprawled on the mattress, eyes fixed on the wall, Link's curled up on the inner side. Rhett blinks. "...can you move?"  
  
"No," Link says.  
  
"Link," Rhett says in a very brittle voice. "Please."  
  
"No, man, if you come up here, you gotta be on the outside." How important is that talk to him?  
  
Rhett hesitates, but he finally starts to slowly crawl on the outer edge of the bed, breathing a little too quickly.  
  
Okay. Real important, then.  
  
Rhett settles on his side facing Link, and when he finally meets Link's eyes Link is struck by the wetness at the edge of Rhett's eyes, by the tracks down his face. "...you were scared enough of climbing up here that you cried?" Link asks, trying to find that easy teasing tone they both love using so much.  
  
Rhett scoffs. "You're thick in the head, you know that?"  
  
"Well, what else am I supposed to think?" Link immediately snaps, his chest aching again.  
  
"I didn't cry over the fucking height, dude."  
  
Rhett leaves Link with that statement. Link lets it settle in. He shakes his head slowly in response, because the implication there, it's too much for him to think about when he feels cut open and exposed under a spotlight.  
  
Rhett lays his head on the pillow with Link's, close enough that Link can see every tear track that Rhett didn't bother wiping away. "Can we talk about this?" Rhett asks quietly.  
  
Link blinks. "I-I don't know what there's to say, really."  
  
"I think you're wrong," Rhett says. He flicks his eyes over Link's face. "I think you've got a lot to say, but you don't wanna. Because if I get mad at you again, you don't know what you're gonna do with yourself."  
  
Link swallows hard. The spotlight's been turned up another notch. It's like being dissected.  
  
"I know you better than I know myself sometimes," Rhett murmurs. "That means it...it takes me a little while to catch up to you every once and a while. You gotta wait for me. You gotta be patient."  
  
"I do, though," Link murmurs back. He clears his throat so it doesn't crack again. "I wait."  
  
"I know." That's when Rhett reaches out and touches Link's face and steals his breath away. "You're good, Link. You're real good."  
  
Link sucks in a sharp breath and closes his eyes, leaning into Rhett's touch, feeling his bottom lip shake. "Rhett."  
  
"I'm not done." Rhett's thumb drags over Link's cheek, slow and hypnotic, and Link drinks it in like he's been in the desert for days. "Listen, I don't know what's going on with us any more than you do. It's...I've never done this before. I've never had to figure it out." Rhett huffs a laugh. "Every time before, like, there's been a guide, y'know? Parents and teachers and friends and just, it, it was neat and tidy, and...and this time ain't so neat."  
  
Link wrinkles his brow, eyes squeezed shut. Every cell of him lights up where they're touching - their legs tangled together, Rhett's arm tucked against Link's chest, Rhett's palm cupping his whole cheek.  
  
"I know you like it better when it's neat, man," Rhett murmurs, "but I need you to wait a little longer, all right? Need you to let it be messy for a little while."  
  
Link opens his eyes and swears softly when his vision's blurred with tears again. "I don't know what's going on anymore, Rhett."  
  
"I know," he says. "I know. Me neither."  
  
"It's so, everything's just, it's all so fucked up," he presses, because he doesn't know anybody who just _does_ this stuff besides Charlotte, he doesn't have a guidebook, he just has memories of a million casual statements and sermons and warnings swelling in the back of his mind and pressing so hard on his skull that he feels like he'll never stop aching.  
  
"It ain't always gonna be that way," Rhett whispers as he takes Link's face between both his hands. "I promise."  
  
Rhett doesn't make promises lightly. Link takes the words and presses them tight to his chest and feels the heat of them inside of him.  
  
"Will you wait a little?" Rhett asks. "Ride this out with me? Just like it is?"  
  
"Rhett," Link whispers back, "I've never done nothing _but_ ride it out with you."  
  
Rhett makes a rough noise as he leans in and catches Link's mouth, and Link wraps his arms around him and drags him until Rhett's rolled on top of him. The indecision, the fear, the ache, it all starts to press out of him, oozing out of his skin, as the weight of Rhett settles more evenly on him, and Link makes a sound against Rhett's mouth that Rhett answers. This is it. This is all Link needs. He wraps his arms around Rhett's shoulders to pull him even tighter against him, each feverish kiss bracketed with another.  
  
The world could end right now, Link distantly thinks, and he would be happy.  
  
Is anything answered? No. Is there a word for whatever this is going on? No. Is it safe? Absolutely not. But Rhett's here with him. They've stopped creeping along the edges of the walls. They're right in the middle, right in the thick of it, right where they can see everything, and they're not gonna leave each other there alone.  
  
Rhett breaks the kiss with a little sound and presses his forehead against Link's. "You can say no," he murmurs, "but do you wanna have sex?"  
  
Link doesn't mean to snort, he really doesn't. "Have sex," he says. "That sounds so sweet. So innocent."  
  
"Listen," Rhett grumbles.  
  
"You don't wanna fuck anymore?" Link teases through the edge of tears still at the corner of his eyes. "You just wanna 'have sex?' Missionary position? Lights off? No swearing?"  
  
Rhett grabs Link's wrists and presses them into the mattress, eyes on his, lips pulled into a grimace. "You want me to fuck you, is that it?" he asks roughly. "I don't have to be gentle."  
  
Link cranes against Rhett's hold to give him another quick kiss. "Only one getting fucked tonight is you, brother."  
  
Rhett growls and leans down to kiss him again, but he laces his fingers with Link's against the mattress, and the jolt of intimacy is enough to make Link gasp and whimper against Rhett's mouth. It's so much. So fucking much.  
  
Maybe it's crass to immediately start grinding up against Rhett even though Link's not even hard yet. Maybe it's inappropriate to reach with one hand to start pulling Rhett's shirt off. Maybe it's all too fast, just a desperate attempt to choke down the fear that's still visceral in the core of him, to swallow back the battery acid that keeps trying to spread through his throat. But he can't help it. There's nothing Link wants more than Rhett pressed against him from head to toe right now.  
  
If he's drowning, he wants Rhett to drown with him. God, maybe they'll figure out how to swim together.  
  
The cool air of the room makes Link feel staticky with every piece of clothing that Rhett peels off of him, like he's a live wire that's too charged and has to burn off energy before it consumes him whole, but the second Rhett presses his naked skin against him, it completes that circuit again. They can kiss and touch each other all over, feel the thrill of a hand squeezing their ass, of their feet rubbing against each other, of their cocks pressed flush together so that every time their hearts beat there's a jolt of pleasure through them.  
  
"Need the lube if I'm gonna fuck you," Link says roughly. "Go get it."  
  
"You're fucking out of your mind," Rhett says. They're finally on their sides again, Rhett finally with his back facing the safety of the wall, but his eyes are still pinned right on Link's like if he looks away the mattress will give out from under him. "You wanna fuck me so bad, you get it."  
  
Link groans and presses tighter against Rhett, twisting one of his legs around Rhett's, feeling the tickle of their body hair against each other. "Think I'll die if I leave you right now."  
  
Rhett pulls Link closer still. "Then don't."  
  
As far as Link's concerned, there's no better view than right above Rhett, so rolling on top of him is less a decision and more a need that he can't fight. He grinds their hips together and swallows down Rhett's moan. "Promise me something," Link whispers as he runs his fingers over Rhett's scalp.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Grow your hair out for me," Link says, flicking his eyes over his head with a little smile. "So I can pull it."  
  
Rhett breathes a laugh. "Yeah, man, whatever," he says as he pulls him back down.  
  
Fuck, their cocks line up so perfectly when they're like this. Link tilts his head to kiss Rhett deeper as he reaches between them and gets Rhett's cock in his hands. Just Rhett's groan would be enough to satisfy him, but..but...  
  
Link bucks his hips against the back of his own hand for just a second before he curiously wraps his hand around both of their dicks.  
  
_Oh._ Oh, okay.  
  
Link whines and pulls back to try and catch his breath. "Holy shit."  
  
"Fuck-" Rhett squeezes his eyes shut and gasps. "Jesus, Link."  
  
"Yeah," he whispers back. He shifts to try and get a better angle and loses his balance, barely catches himself with a hand on Rhett's chest that squeezes all the air out of him. "Sorry, man."  
  
"'S fine," Rhett hisses. It takes Link a second to get comfortable resting his weight on his knees, but when he does he goes to move his hand and Rhett makes a sound, snapping up to grab Link's wrist and holding him still. "Could you..."  
  
Link wrinkles his brow. "Yeah?"  
  
Rhett doesn't reply. But he slowly drags Link's hand up until Link's fingers are around his neck.  
  
Link's hand slows between them so he can think a little clearer through the haze stretching over his mind, but try as he might he can't think of a single thing that Rhett could be asking for besides... "Do you want me to choke you?" Link asks.  
  
Rhett lets out a shaky breath and nods, his brow knitting.  
  
Fuck, holy, okay, that's...Link shifts until Rhett's neck fits a little more comfortably in his hand, until he can feel the shaky press of Rhett's adam's apple against his palm. Listen, yeah, they choked each other as kids, but, but that was different. They had their arms around each other's neck in a sleeper hold, not...not like this. Not where Link could watch Rhett's face wrinkle up and turn pale. "Why?" Link asks.  
  
Rhett makes a sound, then bites his lip and flushes immediately. "I want..." He swallows, and Link can feel every one of his muscles shift under Link's hand. "...it, it felt...earlier, with the tie, I..."  
  
"You liked it?" Link prompts in a quiet voice.  
  
"Yeah," Rhett murmurs. "Wanna, just...wanna see how it feels."  
  
Link's body feels red all over, flushed and thick with power, and he sits back a little more on his haunches and lets his hand fall away from their cock. He grapples with his own mind for a few long seconds before he flicks his tongue over his lip. "Uh, hold, hold your breath for me, just...just wanna see."  
  
Rhett does as Link asks, chest solid and unmoving, and Link carefully squeezes his fingers around the sides of Rhett's throat. Rhett makes a sound, then immediately holds his breath again, squeezing his eyes shut as tightly as he can.  
  
Rhett doesn't stop trying. He doesn't breathe. He turns redder and redder even after Link releases his grip.  
  
Holy shit, he's waiting for Link.  
  
"Stop," Link snaps, and Rhett immediately sucks in air, eyelashes fluttering, hips bucking between them. "Fuck," Link whispers. He looks down and sees how precum is practically leaking down Rhett's cock, how his skin is flushed so red. "You like that?"  
  
"Mm-" Rhett nods.  
  
"Look at me, Rhett," Link says breathlessly, and when Rhett opens his eyes and locks them on Link's, Link begins to squeeze again.  
  
There's a low rumble in Rhett's chest, rough and thick, but it sounds like there's hissing around the edges, like when Link sat on a leaky air mattress for the first time and heard the steady whisper of air escaping. Link wonders what happens if he squeezes tighter.  
  
The answer is that Rhett's cock lurches between them and rubs against Link's for half a second, that's what.  
  
Link lets off pretty quickly, heart pounding in his own chest. "Does it hurt when I do that?"  
  
"A little," Rhett croaks, then coughs. "Want it, though."  
  
"Yeah?" Link presses his hand forward further than he means to, but he feels Rhett's adam's apple recede and immediately hears a result. He barely has to push before Rhett's sounds are hissing again. Just a little further and the sounds stop completely.  
  
Christ.  
  
Link reaches blindly between them to get his hand around their cocks again and starts working at them. He can barely catch his own breath. He's too busy feeling Rhett's neck spasm under his hand when Rhett shifts, tries to swallow, tries to do _anything,_ but he _can't,_ he fucking can't because Link's got all the control, all the fucking power.  
  
Link lets up one more time, just once, just long enough for Rhett to gasp air back into his lungs, and then as he's pressing down, as Rhett's eyelashes flutter, as Rhett's forehead wrinkles as he watches Link with trembling lips and hands laying so loose and submissive on either side of his head on the pillow, that's when Link comes.  
  
Link moans sharply and pulls his hand off of Rhett's neck, pushing it into the pillow beside him, and his heart skips a beat when Rhett grabs it, laces their fingers together, squeezes tightly just as Rhett comes too. Link pumps them both through it, stars behind his eyelids and wine in his blood and Rhett overwhelming every sense on top of that. How could he not? Rhett with his pretty hazel eyes, his lips bitten until they swell, his pulse pounding so hard that Link can see it fluttering when he buries his face in Rhett's neck...he's so good. He's incredible.  
  
"'S not my fault if you bruise," Link murmurs.  
  
Rhett chuckles and pulls Link down. "I-"  
  
"Ugh!" Link immediately springs out of his grip, nearly topples over the bed. "Dude, the cum!"  
  
"The cum!" Rhett squeals mockingly. He gets a hold of Link's wrist again. "You're a fucking baby, c'mere and cuddle."  
  
It makes perfect sense for Link to grab Rhett's shirt and mop up the jizz, and he feels pretty satisfied that Rhett doesn't even notice, that Rhett's too busy playing with Link's short hair, feathering it between his fingers.  
  
"We good?" Link asks softly, eyes focused on Rhett's skin.  
  
"Yeah," Rhett murmurs. He takes the shirt out of Link's hands, tosses it aside, and tugs Link back down on top of him, where Link eagerly nuzzles into his chest. "Yeah, we're good, baby."  
  
  
~~  
  
  
There's a silent understanding that they're feeling each other out after that, that they're doing their own thought experiments, that...that whatever this is is all right. That they'll figure it out. It means Link's head resting in Rhett's lap when they're reading together. It means Link changing clothes and Rhett smacking his bare ass as he walks by him. It means Link wanting the last Snickers bar in the care package that Rhett's mom sent and him kissing Rhett's cheek just to distract him while he sneaks the candy out right under his nose.  
  
It means Link walking into their bedroom after getting a shitty grade on an essay and tossing his backpack down and huffing and opening his mouth to complain about it to Rhett when he freezes because...because... "The hell is that?"  
  
Rhett clears his throat where he is studiously trying to read his upside down textbook. "That," he mumbles, "is a teddy bear with a heart on it."  
  
Link wrinkles his brow. He approaches his desk like the bear is going to explode. He reaches out so tentatively toward the bear's paw, outstretched, and squeezes it.  
  
The bear begins to sing.


	7. Chapter 7

Link lays around in a sweater and his boxers, arms tucked under his head, staring at the metal thatching of the bunk above. He's tired. They need to go to bed. And as nice as it is to listen to Rhett talk and whatever, Link's not feeling like climbing up to his top bunk until they get a chance to go through their nightly routine.  
  
It's kind of pathetic, ain't it? That Link's sank so deeply into the softness of brushing his teeth while he's side by side with Rhett, that he values their hips touching and them competing to see who can spit the most toothpaste into the sink and them cracking up over something silly. That even though they haven't been fucking or nothing since, since their _talk,_ Link likes getting a quick little good night kiss right before he crawls up to his bed.  
  
It's weird. He's not gonna pretend it's not. But it's how it's gotta be.  
  
_"My head gets all fuzzy around you when we're fucking,"_ Rhett said to him a few days ago. _"Kinda feels like I can't really think straight. So maybe we gotta stop while I'm figuring all this out, okay? Maybe it's gotta go back to how it was before."_  
  
Well, they weren't kissing or nothing before, but Rhett seems to think it's okay for them to do that, so Link can't complain, he guesses. Don't seem right just to be kissing and not doing nothing else, but. Well, his momma would probably appreciate that a whole lot more. How many times was he told not to sleep with somebody 'til he knew it was the right person? That he probably wouldn't know it was the right person 'til he married them? He'd already messed up that a hundred times and he hadn't been struck down by no angry God or nothing, so God could probably get the fuck over Himself and forgive Link for kissing another boy.  
  
Link turns his head and watches Rhett pace with their dorm phone, though the cord don't let him get all that far away. "Yeah, Momma, I know," Rhett says. His voice always goes a little softer and smoother when he's talking to his momma. It's nice. "I know. I'm gonna fix it, though. Just about done with my extra credit. Don't tell Dad about it yet, okay?"  
  
Link lets himself take in the shape of Rhett's body as Rhett goes back and forth, how his legs move, how his hands dance through the air while he talks. This whole not-fucking thing is gonna kill Link, especially if Rhett's gonna keep looking damn delicious like he does. But he's gotta wait. Rhett said so. Gotta let it be messy for a little while until Rhett figures himself out.  
  
It's got nothing to do with Rhett's head going _straight,_ Link thinks sarcastically, but he cuts it off pretty fast after that. That's getting into dangerous territory, driving back in time to hear every little thing his dad ever warned him against, and that's...that's...  
  
"Thanksgiving?"  
  
Link perks up, blinking. Rhett turns around and looks at Link, holding his eyes, and Link tilts his head to the side.  
  
"I, uh. I don't know, Momma. Might not make it back."  
  
That's new and interesting. As far as Link knew, they were both going back home for Thanksgiving Break. He hadn't discussed it with his mom, sure, but...  
  
Rhett's cheeks turn a soft shade of peach as he looks at the floor and paces away again. "It's just...y'know, there's a project I've gotta get done. My final project. For the semester. And it's really just, I might need to stay here and get it done."  
  
Link's heart speeds up a little, eyes widening.  
  
"No, yeah, Link's in that class too. I dunno, I need to see what he's doing. But I don't think I'm coming home for the break."  
  
Oh. _Oh._ Link sits up so fast he almost hits his head on the bunk above him.  
  
Rhett laughs at something his momma said and rubs the back of his neck. "Yeah, it's just a lot going on. I might have to redo the thing. I just gotta sit down and think straight, you know?"  
  
Link scrambles to the edge of the bed and sits there, digging his fingers into the side of the mattress, almost bouncing with the energy suddenly ripping through his veins.  
  
"Yeah. I know. Hey, it's late, I gotta go, okay? I'll call you again in the morning. Yeah. Okay. I love you, Momma. Bye."  
  
Rhett's barely put the phone down before Link explodes. "You finished your final project _yesterday._ "  
  
Rhett looks at Link, knitting his fingers behind his neck. He looks nervous for some reason. "Well," he says slowly, "maybe I got something else I gotta figure out."  
  
"Like what?" Link challenges. He wants to hear Rhett say it.  
  
Rhett considers him quietly. He comes up close and leans down so he's face to face with Link, brushing just the tips of their noses together, opening his mouth and letting out a soft, warm breath. It's enough to make Link's eyes go heavy, to make his heart pound, to make Link ache and burn and yearn to sink into Rhett.  
  
Rhett kisses him just the once, chaste and gentle, and then he pulls back. "Gotta brush our teeth, bo," he calls over his shoulder.  
  
It takes Link a long few seconds to realize that Rhett didn't answer Link's question. Jerk.  
  
  
~~  
  
  
Link's barely hung up the phone when he realizes that Rhett is standing close behind him. "Well," Link says, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't know if she's ever gonna talk to me again, but I'm staying here for the break."  
  
"She's your momma," Rhett says with a smile. "It's gonna be fine."  
  
"Yep." Link sighs. He considers the way his body is reacting to the tension of the phone call. "I'm a shit liar."  
  
"Don't I know it," Rhett says dryly. He reaches out and rubs Link's arms up and down with both hands, tipping his head to the side. "What'd she say?"  
  
"Said she already knew I was done with my project." Link lets himself feel the thrill of Rhett's touch, doesn't think about it too hard. "Said I must just be sticking around here 'cuz of a girl I didn't wanna bring home." He chuckles. "Man, if she knew."  
  
Rhett's smile softens. "Yeah, well."  
  
They go quiet. Rhett squeezes Link's shoulders and Link feels the shaking words on his tongue, the things he should say but doesn't know how to do it without scaring Rhett off. But maybe he can just trust Rhett, right? Maybe Rhett'll hang in there with him. "Are we ever gonna tell 'em?" Link asks, tentatively meeting Rhett's eyes.  
  
Rhett wrinkles his brow. His eyes don't go hard, but they seem to close off a little, and he opens his mouth before closing it again without a word. It's a long time before Rhett pulls Link into his arms and hugs him close.  
  
"Rhett?" Link asks, tipping his head back, only able to see Rhett's chin.  
  
Rhett huffs. "Man, I'm starving. You wanna get burgers or something?"  
  
"Rhett." Link frowns.  
  
"Burgers," Rhett says. He kisses the top of Link's head, then ruffles Link's hair as he steps around him. "Burgers first."  
  
"Are we ever gonna be able to talk about this?" Link asks weakly, turning to watch Rhett go.  
  
Rhett stops and leans into the door, his hand on the handle. "...Link," he says. "Bo. Brother." He turns his head and watches Link out of the corner of his eye. "You don't think I'm trying?"  
  
Link stares at him, wondering at how quickly he can go from feeling buoyant under Rhett's hands to helpless under his gaze. He sags a little, letting all his air out at once.  
  
"Burgers first, dude," Rhett says. "We got all break to figure this out. Trust me, okay?"  
  
Rhett's never let him down before. Link wonders suddenly if maybe there's always a first time. "Yeah," he says softly, following Rhett out the door.  
  
  
~~  
  
  
Link's hair is still wet from the shower when he comes up beside Rhett. "They head out already?"  
  
"Yep." Rhett sighs. "Gonna be a quiet week without a couple of roommates shouting up the place, huh?"  
  
"Maybe not so quiet," Link says.  
  
Rhett looks at him, at how Link's leaning back into the doorframe, shirt left in the bathroom, his shorts loose on his body. A few drops fall from his hair, dripping slowly over Link's sharp collarbone, down his pecs, drawing a trail on either side of his nipples. Rhett probably don't mean to stare. But he does. And Link drinks it in.  
  
"You planning on throwing a party or something?" Rhett drawls as he comes close, arms crossed over his chest. "Can't think of any other reason it'd be loud."  
  
"Oh, you can't, huh?" Link teases with a grin. He stares up at Rhett, feeling the heat of Rhett's body so close to Link's bare skin. "Man, you gotta learn to use your imagination, brother."  
  
Rhett breathes a little laugh, but he doesn't move right away. He looks over what he can see of Link's body, all slow and careful, like he's forgotten what Link looks like, like Link hasn't been parading around the dorm half-naked for the past two weeks. 'Cuz here's the thing, if they're not fucking, it's almost like they never did. It's easier for Link to think that he made it up somehow. The kisses, they're sweet, they're filling, but they're not enough. 'Cuz maybe Rhett just got bored. And maybe he's trying to figure out how to let Link down real easy.  
  
"Y'know, I feel real cold now that I'm out of the shower," Link murmurs, taking a step closer. "You know a way to warm me, Rhett?"  
  
Rhett lets out a shaky breath and Link pulls it inside of himself, bolsters up with it. Rhett can pretend all he wants that he don't want Link, that he don't need the fucking, any of that, but that little sound, that's all Link needs to know the truth. "You're something else, man," Rhett says as he moves past Link toward the bathroom. "Try putting on clothes."  
  
Link chuckles, looking down at his bare feet. He knows Rhett pretty well after fifteen years, he'd say. He counts. _Three, two, one..._  
  
The bathroom door slams open just as quickly as it was shut. "The hell is this?" Rhett asks.  
  
Link looks up and sees the bottle of lube that Rhett's holding. He quirks a brow. "Wow, man, thought you would've figured out what that is by now on account of-"  
  
"Why," Rhett interrupts, eyes sharp, voice firm, "is it in the bathroom?"  
  
Link bites his bottom lip. He considers Rhett's expression. Rhett looks well and pissed off right now, sure, but there's more to it than that. His cheeks are flushed. He's breathing a little harder. And his pupils are wide. Link flicks his tongue over his lips, watches Rhett's eyes follow it. "Must've forgot I left it in there," he says as he walks across the room nice and slow, hips swaying. He reaches out and plucks it from Rhett's hand. "Oops."  
  
Rhett reaches for Link, but he pulls back at the last second, shakes his head with a rough laugh as he moves around Link. "Brother, you gotta give me some slack here, okay, I told you I need-"  
  
"It's been two weeks," Link says. He drops the seductive facade like a towel, whipping around to watch Rhett as he walks away. "Two weeks and you still can't even talk about nothing."  
  
"I need time-"  
  
"No, what you need is to try," Link snaps. He grabs Rhett's arm and turns him around. "We need to talk about this."  
  
Rhett shakes his head. His wrist is trembling under Link's touch. "It's not that easy."  
  
"No, you're right, it's not," Link says, "but it ain't ever gonna be easy if you don't just up and do it."  
  
"Link-"  
  
"Do you wanna be with me?" There. Link said it. He put it right the fuck out there, where Rhett can see it just like Link can, the big ol' elephant right smack dab in the middle of the room. "Do you wanna just be my friend, or do you wanna be fuck buddies, or do you actually wanna _be_ something here?"  
  
Rhett pulls his arm out of Link's grip and leans down, raising his voice so he's just about shouting right in Link's face. "I'm not ready!"  
  
"Says who?!" Link squares right up with him. "You can talk all about it when you're balls deep inside me, can't you?"  
  
Rhett grinds his teeth together, nostrils flaring.  
  
"Fuck you, then," Link snaps, pushing Rhett back a step. "Just forget it."  
  
Link takes two steps toward the door before Rhett grabs him and yanks him back, Link's back flush against Rhett's chest. "No, don't you fucking dare," Rhett growls. "You're not running away this time."  
  
"You gonna give me a reason to stay?" Link growls back.  
  
Rhett whips Link around, grabs him by the chin, and kisses him. It's a biting kiss, full of fire and teeth, and Link feels his legs almost buckle at the force of it. It's like Rhett's wrapping every inch of his desire around Link and squeezing tight until Link can barely breathe, until he can never even doubt what Rhett feels for him.  
  
Link scrambles for Rhett's belt, fingers shaking as he tries to open it, and Rhett groans against Link's mouth and pulls back to cup Link through his shorts. Link swears, bucking forward, but Rhett frowns. "You wearing anything under these?" Rhett asks.  
  
Link pants, meeting Rhett's eyes as he rips Rhett's belt open. "Why don't you find out?"  
  
Rhett grunts as he pulls Link in for a kiss again and Link surges against him in desperation. He needs to crawl inside of Rhett, needs to hide there next to his heart, protected by his ribs, warmed by his blood. Rhett stumbles backward with the force of Link's body and gasps as they slam back against the doorframe, as they almost topple over. "Dude-"  
  
"Shut up," Link says. He drags Rhett's pants down with his boxers and drops to his knees, panting, feeling hot sweat already spreading on his skin as he takes Rhett into his mouth and moans.  
  
Rhett cries out, throwing his head back as he sinks his fingers into Link's slick hair. Rhett jolts back a step or two until he can lean back against his desk, dragging Link with him by the hair, and the burn of Link's knees on the linoleum paired with the sting of Rhett's fingers is almost too much. He bucks forward in his shorts, wishes he had Rhett's hand there to give his dick some pressure. Fuck, though, maybe he could come just from this, from blowing Rhett as fast and as hard as he can with Rhett pulling his hair.  
  
Rhett's not fighting him. Rhett's not trying to pull him off. No, Rhett wants this, wants _him,_ and Link wants to melt inside from it.  
  
"God, I love your fucking mouth," Rhett breathes. He bucks his hips forward and Link gags, pulling off long enough to catch his breath before he drags his tongue up Rhett's cock and listens to him gasp. "Been watching it all week, Neal, just, _Jesus._ "  
  
Link moans. He sucks just the head of Rhett's cock into his mouth and mouths at it, lathing his tongue all over it until Rhett tentatively pushes his hips further, makes Link take him down even further. Fire lights up all down Link's spine. Fuck, Rhett's the only one that can handle him like this, he decides. Rhett's the only one who's ever gonna earn the chance to take a little control away.  
  
"You think I d-don't know what you've been doing?" Rhett growls. "Think I don't see you bending that tight little ass over everything? Almost dragged your drawers down and fucked you the other night just from how long it took you to go through your fucking bag."  
  
Link squeezes his eyes shut from the sheer agony of trying not to touch himself, Jesus _fuck._ He whimpers around Rhett's cock, sucking as hard as he can, feeling shivers rake over him.  
  
"Thought you'd like that, huh? If I just fucked you right in the middle of the fucking room where anybody could walk in on us. Bet you'd like it if I fucked you dry just 'cuz I couldn't wait for you no longer."  
  
Link moans sharply as he pulls out of Rhett's hold, off his cock, panting as he throws himself over Rhett's desk. "C'mon, c'mon," Link breathlessly goads, arching his back, and Rhett's hands land on his ass like they were magnetized. "Oh, fuck, _please._ "  
  
Rhett drags Link's shorts down and sinks his fingers into Link's ass, squeezing hard enough that Link cries out and ducks his head. "Gimme the lube," Rhett murmurs.  
  
"Just do it, do it, c'mon," Link begs.  
  
"Link, I'm not-" Rhett cuts off when he circles a finger around Link's hole. He freezes, then eases his finger inside of Link's slick, stretched ass. "You little slut."  
  
Link pushes his hips backward, taking Rhett's finger to the hilt, cheeks burning as he claws at the desk.  
  
"I can't fucking believe you." Rhett pushes three fingers inside of Link without any warning, fanning them out, and Link keens at the little extra stretch that he hadn't managed with his own fingers right out of the shower, at how Rhett pulls his fingers out just as quickly. "You planned this."  
  
"Hoped for it," Link remedies. "I fucking need your cock."  
  
"Well, you're gonna fucking get it," Rhett shoots back just as he presses his cock inside Link instead.  
  
It's hard and rough, straight up _fucking,_ Rhett shoving Link down where he wants him on the desk and taking him fast. It's everything that Link wants, desperation tinging every move. He even appreciates how his own cock rubs against the hard wood under him, aching, visceral, just barely keeping him from coming all over it.  
  
Rhett's fingers bruise his hips as he holds him still and takes what he needs, and as the minutes bleed on Link feels something ripping apart inside of his chest. He gasps and squeezes his eyes shut, feeling how they burn, trying to focus on the rough sounds Rhett's making that for once he doesn't have to fucking hide.  
  
"So good," Rhett growls at one point, leaning down to sink his teeth into Link's shoulder, and Link feels the pain spread all through him somehow, pain and heat holding him right at the edge of orgasm.  
  
It takes Link a long moment to realize he's crying.  
  
Rhett comes inside of him far sooner than Link wants, still growling, still rough, and Rhett grinds his hips against Link's ass for a few seconds before he goes to pull out. Link makes a sound, hand flying behind him, and grabs Rhett's hip, holds him still. Holds Rhett inside of him.  
  
"...Link?" Rhett asks, voice raw.  
  
Link tries to speak, to say Rhett's name, but his throat is too choked to manage it. He dips his head and presses his forehead against the desk, shaking, and when Rhett presses fully inside of him with his soft cock again Link makes another low sound and squeezes Rhett's hip.  
  
"Hey, hey," Rhett whispers, low, soothing, warm. "Hey, what's up, man? Too rough?"  
  
Link feels the tears pooling on the desk when he turns his head, rests his cheek on the surface.  
  
"I'm here," Rhett whispers. He pets through Link's hair and kisses his back. "I'm here, Link, it's okay."  
  
Link sucks in a wet breath. "I-I'm scared," he sobs. "God, I'm so fucking scared."  
  
Rhett drapes his chest over Link's back, close enough that Link can barely breathe, and wraps his arms around him. "Yeah," he whispers, and his breath is wet too, wet enough that Link doesn't doubt the tears that fall on the back of his neck. "Yeah, I know, baby. Me too."  
  
Link cries and Rhett holds fast. Rhett doesn't let him down. Just like he promised.  
  
  
~~  
  
  
The next day they don't even bother with clothes. They roll out of Rhett's bed together. They take a piss each, both of them leaning into the wall by the toilet while they wait for the other and continuing their sleepy conversation about missing turkey and dressing this week. They brush their teeth. They grab some of the fruit they pilfered from the cafeteria and wander into the living room. Rhett flips the TV on as Link starts on his banana, but neither of them watch. They press close together. They talk in soft tones. They toss their peels aside when they're done.  
  
Link stretches out on the couch, back arched weirdly as he rests his ass on Rhett's muscular thighs, and Rhett hesitates before he pets through Link's hair just like he had the day before. Link wiggles a little under Rhett's appraisal, grinning up at him. He could probably fall asleep again like this, he thinks, if they both weren't naked, if Link's skin wasn't warm against Rhett's.  
  
Neither of them are sure who reaches first, but they ghost their fingers over each other's cocks. They're not hard yet. It's a slow process, just trailing their fingers over the soft skin, giving faint pressure when they drag up sometimes, occasionally experimenting with running their fingers over the other's balls.  
  
It's a soft game. It feels like something they should've done in high school, experimenting, touching without goal or shame. It feels silly, really, keeps color high in Link's cheeks, but Rhett isn't laughing. They're both making quiet sounds, little moans and grunts as they start getting hard, eyes on each other's dicks as they start to fill out.  
  
Rhett smoothly pumps Link's cock when it gets half hard, drawing a rough breath from Link, and Link arches his back to give him better access. It's weird touching each other without driving specifically toward climax, but...but it's not bad.  
  
"Why'd you want me to come inside you that first time?" Rhett asks, voice still rough from sleep.  
  
Link looks up at him, biting his bottom lip, his own hand slowing on Rhett's cock. "What?"  
  
"When I fucked you the first time," Rhett repeats. "When you didn't want a condom. I just...wanna know why."  
  
Link's hand falls away as he feels something grow in his chest, tension paired with nerves. Rhett doesn't talk about this stuff. He doesn't bring up fucking unless he's mad or unless they're charging headlong for it. But they're not fucking right now, as far as Link knows. He swears he can still feel Rhett's cum inside of him from the night before. Would he bend over for Rhett again so soon? Yeah, absolutely. He wonders if he should go for the lube or just try it like this.  
  
Rhett grunts, letting Link's dick go as well, reaching to lace their fingers on Link's chest. "It's just a question, dude."  
  
"No, it's, I just..." Link squeezes his hand, heart beating faster under their joined fingers. Shit. Okay. They're talking. It's happening. "...I, uh...I just...I wanted to make sure it was real."  
  
Rhett blinks a few times. He chuckles. "What, my cock wasn't real enough for you?"  
  
"Shut up," Link says, laughing quietly. He covers his eyes with his other hand. "I just...wanted to know for sure. I wanted...I wanted, like, a real sign that it had happened. That you had wanted me."  
  
"What you're saying," Rhett says dryly, "is that when my cum was dripping out of you later, you'd use it to remember that it happened?"  
  
"Yeah." God, he's blushing, how fucking ridiculous. "I...I knew I was gonna have a little crisis afterward. Wondering if it really happened. If it was gonna happen again. And just...having that would show me that you wanted me. That maybe you were gonna want me again. That maybe it wasn't just me."  
  
"You want me that bad, bo?" Rhett asks, almost a murmur.  
  
Link licks his lips and swallows past the knot in his throat. "Yeah. A lot."  
  
Rhett doesn't reply right away. But he does slide an arm under Link's shoulders and sit Link up so that Rhett can kiss him.  
  
  
~~  
  
  
Rhett kicks the door open, arms full of a pizza box and barely balancing breadsticks on top of it. "Goddamn, Link!" Rhett calls out. "You missed something fine!"  
  
"What's that?" Link grins where he can see Rhett from the kitchen, where he's grabbing their beers and snagging some napkins. They'll never hear the end of it if they got grease all over the couch.  
  
"Fucking amazing girl delivered this," Rhett says as he waltzes into the kitchen. "Beautiful. Gorgeous!" He sets the boxes down, then tries to peer out the window, tries to see if he can catch sight of her again. "Goddamn, wish I'd had more to tip her just for that pretty smile alone."  
  
Link's own smile is hard to hold, but he manages it. "Yeah, well," he says quietly as he sets down the paper plates, then clears his throat. "Would've taken more than a couple of bucks to get her to go out with your ugly ass."  
  
Rhett chuckles, dry and knowing. "Somebody's jealous."  
  
"What?" Link asks. "Am not."  
  
"Are too!" Rhett bumps his hip against Link's, reaching around to poke his waist from the other side. "Somebody wishes he got to check out the pretty girl instead!"  
  
"Get off!" Link shoves Rhett and shakes his head. "You're fucking, you're something else, dude."  
  
They settle in on the couch with their pizza and Link turns on the TV, is more than happy to turn up the volume so loudly that he couldn't even hear Rhett comment on anything if he tried. It's hard to chew the pizza, harder still to swallow it, but Link manages it.  
  
It's barely been five minutes when Rhett steals the remote and turns the volume down a bit. "You're mad about something," Rhett accuses.  
  
"Am not," Link says again, scowling.  
  
"Are too."  
  
"I'm mad 'cuz I can't hear the game!" Link says. He goes for the remote but Rhett holds it out of reach. "Fuck you." Link sinks back into the couch cushion with a huff.  
  
Rhett blinks at him. "What was that?" He holds the remote a little closer, but Link still doesn't go for it. "What the fuck, dude, you rode my dick last night, but you're not even gonna try to go for the remote if it means you gotta touch me now?"  
  
Link shoves half of the piece of pizza in his mouth so he doesn't have to reply.  
  
Rhett stares at him all quiet like, which is never good for Link, and after a few seconds he hums. "Ah. Ahaha. Okay."  
  
"What?" Link asks, nearly spraying half-chewed food through the air.  
  
Rhett leans closer, eyes sparkling but intent. "You're jealous that I said the girl was hot."  
  
Link just about chokes on his food, has to take a swig of beer to get it all down. "Oh, fucking get real," Link snaps when he's safe from the clutches of accidental death. "Like I'd get jealous over that. You can find whatever girl you want attractive."  
  
"Then why's your face look like that?"  
  
"Like what?"  
  
Rhett pulls an exaggerated pout that makes him look pathetic and laughable and Link absolutely does _not_ look like that. When Link half-turns his back to Rhett, Rhett laughs again. "C'mon, dude, you really gonna pout about it? What, you think she's prettier than you? You wanna go beat her up?"  
  
"Like I'd ever hit a girl," Link snaps. But he doesn't say more, because Rhett's better at reading somebody than Link is, and Rhett's gonna figure it out in like three-  
  
"You really are," Rhett says softly, brow furrowing.  
  
Okay, not three seconds, then.  
  
"You're really jealous that I thought she was pretty."  
  
Link huffs and rakes a hand through his hair. "It's no big deal, whatever."  
  
"Brother," Rhett murmurs, "you know I can find both you _and_ girls attractive, right?"  
  
Link looks down. He picks at the edges of his paper plate.  
  
Rhett scoots closer and reaches to cup Link's face, to turn it toward him. "Hey. C'mon. You the one who's not gonna talk to me now?"  
  
Link doesn't wanna look at him, but apparently he's gotta. He sighs. "Rhett, it's...we're being...we're doing gay things right now." He throws his arms in the air. "There! I said it! It's real fucking gay!" He gestures toward the window in exasperation. "So hey, you find a pretty girl, you're gonna stop doing the gay shit, right? 'Cuz that's what it is. You remember you're straight, you stop messing around with me, whatever. I just. I sort of thought we'd have more...more time, I guess."  
  
"Link," Rhett says firmly. "Will you listen to what you're saying, man? That's, you're being ridiculous, quit it."  
  
"Well, what is it, then?" Link snaps.  
  
"It's not just gay and straight!" Rhett snaps back. "I mean, hello, have you _met_ Charlotte?!"  
  
"The hell's that mean?!" Link asks, just about chucking his plate on the coffee table to face Rhett, to square up for a fight.  
  
Rhett huffs. "Listen, I know some girls out there are Kelly Anne and they just like playing a little experiment game to make their boyfriends all hot and bothered, but not everybody's like that. Charlotte, for example? My bisexual ex-girlfriend?"  
  
Everything slows down for a minute. Link wrinkles his brow. "...bi...bi-what-now?"  
  
Rhett wrinkles his brow right back. "Bisexual. You like both."  
  
Link's cheeks turn warm as he sorts through the word.  
  
Rhett flicks his eyes up and down Link's face. "...man, you don't know what I'm saying, do you?"  
  
That's just about a knife in his gut, really. "What, there can't be a thing I don't know sometimes?" Link asks, crossing his arms over his chest, looking away.  
  
"No, hey, stop. I'm sorry. That's not what I meant. Listen..." Rhett grabs Link's hands and untangles his arms, sighing. "Bicycle's got two wheels, right? Well, bisexual people don't just like one type of person. They like people the same as them _and_ people different from them. That make sense?"  
  
Link knows distantly that his heart is thudding, that his chest is tight, that it's hard to breathe, but he pushes past it so he can try and work through Rhett's words. "...like...boys are the same as me, but girls are different from me."  
  
"Yeah, I mean, basically." Rhett shrugs. "Charlotte says it's a little more complicated than that, but, yeah."  
  
"So..." Link swallows. "So you like more boys than just me."  
  
"I mean..." Rhett huffs. "I don't know, I'm still figuring it out, but, like...maybe? That might be it?"  
  
"So it's okay," Link says, then pauses when he realizes his throat is tight. "It's, it's not...it's okay, it's..."  
  
Link's surprised by Rhett pulling Link into his arms, where Link can fist his hands in Rhett's t-shirt and breathe in the scent of him. Link doesn't cry this time. Link never cries. But he does close his eyes and shiver.  
  
"It's okay," Rhett whispers as he rubs his hand up and down Link's back. "It's real okay, man."  
  
  
~~  
  
  
There's definitely something new about being fucked on a couch. Not even on the couch proper, but while balancing on the couch arm itself.  
  
Link arches his back with a gasp, arms straining behind him to support himself on the cushion, while Rhett's strong hands steady him as he fucks into him. "Holy shit," Link whispers, squeezing his eyes shut. God, he'll never fucking get sick of this.  
  
"Yeah?" Rhett asks. He shifts his angle, bracing the small of Link's back with his broad palm. "That feel good, baby?"  
  
"Oh my God-" The next thrust makes Link's veins sing, electric and, and almost too much. "Fuck!"  
  
"Yeah, that's it, let me hear you, c'mon," Rhett murmurs.  
  
Link struggles to pay attention to anything Rhett says, really, because that's, it's, his cock is doing something _incredible_ inside of him, on the borderline of overwhelming. It's all Link can do to twist his face and dig his teeth into his bottom lip.  
  
The touch of Rhett's other hand on his cock makes Link curl his toes and shout as he throws his head back. He doesn't even register coming. It's all intense waves of pleasure and need that crest and crest and don't ever seem to come down, not until Rhett's groaning and shaking and letting Link slowly sink down onto the couch on his too-weak arms.  
  
It's inevitable that Link would reach for Rhett, would quite literally yank him over the edge of the couch. Rhett swears as he tumbles on top of Link. "Holy fuck, you want me to crush you now?" Rhett asks.  
  
Link doesn't respond intelligibly. He wraps his arms and legs all around Rhett and buries his face in his neck, shivering. It's too good. He can't come down. He won't.  
  
He doesn't come out of it until the sun's already down. The TV's on, though it wasn't when they started fucking, and Link blinks blearily, squinting around the room.  
  
"Hey there," Rhett murmurs. "Finally. You awake?"  
  
"Ugh." Link pulls Rhett closer still. "No. Going back to sleep."  
  
"Absolutely not." Rhett wiggles until Link huffs and lets him go. "I'll be right back, Christ."  
  
Link lays on the couch, knees sore from being bent over the arm the whole time, ribs feeling achy from the weight of Rhett on him for...for how long? He can't even predict, not even from looking at the clock. He doesn't remember when they went from kissing gently in the living room before Rhett went to get them lunch to stripping their clothes off right then and there, but they did. Past lunch, though. Probably almost past dinnertime. He rubs his eyes and tries to care, tries to pretend he isn't as well fucked and relaxed as he is.  
  
The toilet flushes distantly and Rhett opens the door, having pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. "Man, why do you always do that?"  
  
"Mm?" Link stretches out and yawns. "Do what?"  
  
"Fall asleep when we're done." Rhett shakes his head as he shoves his tennis shoes on with no socks. His feet're gonna stink later, ugh. "Every single time we fuck, you fall asleep immediately. Every single time I have to take a piss or something and I can't 'cuz you're clinging to me or laying on top of me or whatever. My bladder hates you. I'm gonna get a fucking infection."  
  
"Get over it," Link says as he rubs his eyes, smiling softly. "Never heard a guy so upset that he got to fuck something."  
  
Rhett snorts. "Next time I'll just pee on you."  
  
"Fuck you," Link says. He eases back on the couch so he can lay back fully. His knees pop as he goes. "Just feels safe, okay?"  
  
"What does?" Rhett asks, blinking down at him as he pulls a jacket on.  
  
"You." Link blushes and looks at the TV again. "Feels safe being with you."  
  
Rhett's quiet for a long moment. He comes over and cups the back of Link's head, giving him a lingering kiss that has Link sighing when Rhett pulls away. "Nap breath," Rhett mutters before he gives him one more quick pop kiss. "I'll be back. You still good with Taco Bell?"  
  
"Yeah," Link says, fuzzy headed and grinning at Rhett as he heads toward the door. "Hey, be safe, brother."  
  
"Yeah, yeah," Rhett says as he opens the door, talking louder as he goes. "God knows how you'll fucking get any sleep anymore if I don't!"  
  
The door shuts and Link laughs. He manages to get up and go into the bedroom and snag Rhett's comforter off his bed, then drags it back to the couch to wrap himself up in to watch TV.  
  
  
~~  
  
  
The whole thing about being underprepared college students away from home on Thanksgiving for the first time is that they forget that nothing is fucking open on Thanksgiving. And that's how they end up making two boxes of mac and cheese out of a box and sharing it together in a giant bowl with two spoons.  
  
They watch the game, because of course they do, because it's easy to share space on the couch, legs toppled over each other, bare feet touching absently, Link tucked under one of Rhett's arms so he can reach the bowl better. They don't talk. They don't need to. It's been a long few days of being alone together every minute of every day, cuddling every night in Rhett's bed, fucking every second they feel up to it.  
  
The commercials start rolling and Link looks up, distracted for a moment by Rhett's neck so close to his own. It's a good neck, okay? It's all strong and long and golden. Any other person might be tempted to press their mouth against it. Link presses his hand against it instead.  
  
Rhett makes an absent sound, wrinkling his brow, looking down at Link, but he can't hide the way that his eyelashes flutter when Link squeezes slightly.  
  
"Can we talk about something?" Link asks quietly.  
  
Rhett exhales shakily, his pulse pounding under Link's fingers. "Yeah, man, anything, what's up?"  
  
"This," Link murmurs. "The choking thing. That was, like...that was pretty out there when you brought it up." He stops squeezing, settles for thumbing over Rhett's Adam's apple instead. "Just curious how you figured out you liked it. Did you think about it a lot with me or something?"  
  
Rhett swallows hard, muscles moving right where Link can feel them. "I mean, uh..." He seems a little unresponsive, so Link pulls his hand away, goes to spoon up more mac and cheese instead. "It's...it's something I did with Charlotte sometimes."  
  
Link blinks. "Seriously?" He doesn't mean to sound so defeated, and the look on Rhett's face tells him that Rhett heard. "I mean, uh-"  
  
"I did a lot of things with Charlotte," Rhett says with a chuckle. "You're gonna have to get used to that."  
  
"I know, I know," Link mutters. "Just, God, do I ever get to be your first anything or whatever?"  
  
"First dude doesn't count?" Rhett challenges. "First dick I touched that didn't belong to me, that either?"  
  
"No, I guess that's fine." Link knows he sounds pathetic, grumbling like this, but when Rhett presses a kiss to Link's temple he sinks into his side again with a huff. "Well, what's the appeal anyway? The choking thing."  
  
Rhett considers. "I don't know, man. It's just cool. There's like, it makes my head all fuzzy when you do it right, that's all. Makes me feel just...all peaceful and shit."  
  
"Weird," Link says.  
  
"Maybe. I don't know how it works, dude, just that it does." He clears his throat. "And that I trust you, that too."  
  
"Yeah?" That feels a little better, at least.  
  
"Yeah," Rhett says. "I get to put my whole well being in your hands, y'know? And know that you're gonna take care of me."  
  
Man, that just makes Link feel all fuzzy and warm inside and shit. He can't help it. He stares up at Rhett, grinning from ear to ear, and when Rhett won't look at him he leans over to kiss his neck. "Cool," Link murmurs.  
  
Rhett grunts in response. Real sweet.  
  
Link takes another bite of mac and cheese, considering as he chews. "Hey, guess what?"  
  
"What?" Rhett asks.  
  
"I think I'm a sadist. I like seeing you in pain or, like, squirming around while I choke you or whatever."  
  
Rhett snorts. "Well, I knew that already, man."  
  
"Don't act like you don't like it," Link teases, leaning up to kiss the beauty mark on Rhett's face.  
  
"Yeah, yeah," Rhett grumbles. He squeezes Link around the shoulders. "Shut up, the game's back on."  
  
"You shut up," Link murmurs, cheeks starting to hurt from smiling.  
  
  
~~  
  
  
Break's almost over and they both know it. Link still has no idea how they both fit in the shower stall, Rhett first mouthing at Link's asshole while Link shook against the wall, then Link getting his hand around Rhett's cock and telling Rhett when he could and couldn't fuck into Link's hand, but it had somehow ended without bruises or calling an ambulance, and now they're both strewn out on Rhett's bed. Neither of them bothered with a towel, not with how shaky their legs were after. Rhett could deal with damp sheets, Link decides. It's early enough in the day. They'll dry by bedtime.  
  
There's still homework they have to do. Their textbooks are scattered across Link's desk, just waiting for them to do the tiny assignments their teachers assigned to make Thanksgiving a time to be unthankful for. But it can wait. They're post-coital, for one, and Link wants to prove that he's able to be post-coital without falling asleep, for two. Ain't nothing gonna stop him. Not even Rhett's warm skin. Not even how Rhett runs his hand gently up and down Link's naked spine. Not even the thudding heart right under Link's ear.  
  
Link's eyelashes flutter, and he presses soft kisses to the gentle swell of Rhett's chest. He loves this. He can't get over it.  
  
Being quiet is making Link drowsy, though, so he needs to talk. There's a hundred things they still need to discuss, of course, but Rhett's doing better about it now. Link's no longer scared that they gotta figure it all out at once. No, they got time, and Rhett's not holding him at arm's length, so Link can wait.  
  
One thought comes to mind, though, and Link leaves one last kiss before he murmurs it. "Why'd you get so mad when I didn't wanna fuck you a couple of weeks ago, man?"  
  
Rhett makes a questioning sound, rough enough that Link's pretty sure he was half-asleep himself, and Link smiles, closing his eyes, brushing his eyelashes against Rhett's skin. "What, like...when we fought?"  
  
"Yeah." Link's not scared of the fight anymore either. They've always fought. Shit happens. And that one had to happen too, so they could start figuring this out. That's just how it goes.  
  
Rhett sighs heavily, making Link's head rise and fall. Link runs his thumb over Rhett's waist as he waits. Maybe it's a deeper question than he thought. When Rhett finally speaks, it's in a low murmur that Link has to fight to hear. "Thought it was over." Rhett tightens his arm around Link. "I just...I didn't know how to go back to how we used to be."  
  
"Really?" Link asks.  
  
"Yeah." Rhett huffs. "God, I spent a long time just...having dreams about you - we're talking like X-rated dreams, man - and I thought they were just a fluke or whatever, but, y'know, maybe I knew. Maybe I always knew I could be interested in you, if I tried."  
  
Link considers this. Wasn't all that hard starting to think about Rhett like this either. He'd had his fair share of heart pounding excitement when they wrestled or weird dreams that he had to explain away. Definitely a few reasons he'd never kept a dream journal before. But there's something off about what Rhett said, something that wriggles in Link's gut. "...you really think we can't go back to what we used to be like, if we decide we don't wanna do this?" he asks softly. "You think we fucked up our friendship? Is it fucking or nothing now?"  
  
Rhett gathers Link up in both arms. "C'mere," he murmurs, and Link crawls until he can lay fully on top of Rhett and look down at him. "Hey."  
  
Link forces a smile. "Hey there, brother."  
  
Rhett pushes Link's wet hair away from his forehead and sighs. "I think we're golden. I think we're made to be best friends. Brothers. From here until the end of time."  
  
Link hopes that's not the end of it. "But?" he hedges, hoping, praying, craving.  
  
"But..." Rhett bites his bottom lip. "...I think we both want something else too. And I think we'd be fooling ourselves if we said we didn't."  
  
Link lets out all his air, didn't even realize he was holding it in. "Yeah?" he asks, grinning from ear to ear.  
  
"Yeah." Rhett thumbs over Link's bottom lip and Link makes a show of trying to bite it, making Rhett chuckle as he pulls it away.  
  
"So what is this?" Link asks. "What, what are we, man?"  
  
"I haven't figured that part out yet," Rhett says. "Don't rush me now."  
  
"But, I mean, like, I-I don't need a title, I just...are we just friends?" Link asks, nuzzling into Rhett's open palm.  
  
Rhett strokes his thumb over Link's cheek, over the roughness of Link's stubble. "...no," Rhett murmurs with a smile. "No, we're sure as hell more than that, bo."


End file.
